British bookstore chain WH Smith has sold the entire town’s retail division to private equity firm Modela Capital. The store serves as a major newsstand outlet for British comics.
Modella Capital will be selling for £76 million (~$100 million) and will be installed in town centres, retail parks and shopping malls across the UK to rename TG Jones. WH Smith will retain its brand and refocus on a network of travel shops located in major locations such as hospitals, railway stations and airports in 32 countries. The new TG Jones name, set to replace the high street brand in June, was chosen by Modella Capital.
WH Smith still exists in the UK (and overseas), which have a large network of travel shops at train stations and airports. ©Dean Simons
Recently, WH Smith stores host post offices and sell high-tech gadgets along with stationary gift cards and more, but are mostly known as bookstores and newsstand vendors. That’s why it became the only guaranteed place to find most British newsstand comics. Rebellion’s 2000 ads and sister titles The titles include Judge Dredd Megazine, DC Thomson’s Beano and Commando, and David Fickling’s Phoenix, as well as reprints (indie titles like Shift and Quantum) published by Marvel and DC Comics Panie, were available for purchase from stores from London to Reistes to Kilmarock. It is unclear how much the store (and its 5,000 powerful staff) will be changed by shakeups and future locations of magazines and comics.
Concerns about the move are reflected by British comic blogger John Freeman.
“Whsmith is a leading seller of newsstand comics such as 2000ad, Beano, Quantum and Shift, and despite recent changes in installation layouts, he is a leading seller of newspapers and magazines in high street stores.
Regular UK comics derive sales from the mix of newsstand retail presence and subscriptions, and occasionally appear in dedicated comic bookstores. Most, if not all, of their high street presence rests on WH Smith, with supermarkets in a distant (and more inconsistent) seconds.
Explaining the rationale for the sale, Smith said:
“In the last decade, Whsmith has become a leading global travel retailer with over 1,200 travel shops in 32 countries. While profitable and cash-generating, the UK’s high street business is becoming less and less for the WHSmith Group.
Modella Capital is a private equity company founded in 2022. He specializes in attracting retail and consumer-focused companies, including art and craft retailers Hobbycraft and Ted Baker Fashion Licensee No. Normal Designer Label.
WH Smith has been around since 1792 and was originally a London-based news vendor. During the Victorian era, the advent of railways expanded their business by serving as a major source of novels, newspapers and magazines aimed at tourists. It then expands its presence beyond travel hotspots, becoming the preferred (and ubiquitous) public retail brand in town centres and high streets.
Smith announced in January that he would be selling his retail division and focusing on travel stores. They declared that only 15% of the total revenue came from high street retail. The high street sector of the economy has been struggling even before the start of the Covid pandemic. Costs are rising, increasing profit margins, online retail and declining footprints in town centres are approaching many familiar British stores.
WH Smith Store Charing Cross Road, London (©Dean Simons)
It is unclear that British comic publishers will have a major impact on a sudden shift, but the diversification of lines beyond periodicals and the adoption of graphic novels and collection forms may be alleviated to some extent. The country’s biggest success in recent years was the Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey series, first published in David Fickling’s The Phoenix. Meanwhile, the Rebellion has made great strides in building back catalogues of 2000 advertisements and collections from the Treasury of British cartoons, and has gone very long to boost its presence in the US.
DC Thomson may be most affected by change. It is a Scotland-based newspaper and magazine publisher, and was previously the largest name in traditional British comics. For a long time, he has reluctantly restricted reprints of Vino, Dandy and beloved Scottish newspapers in his move to a collection of books of archival material. Recently, I have been experimenting sporadically with a collection of works from Commando and Warlord in the War Comics series. There may be changes – this week is a coincidence as we have recently partnered with Harper Collins’ Imprint Far Shorebook to collect Yeti for the popular Beno series Betty and Yeti).
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