Proud to support Swindon and Wiltshire Pride! At WHSmith, we are always proud to stand with our colleagues in celebrating love, diversity, and inclusion. We believe in supporting and uplifting all voices and creating spaces where everyone feels welcome and valued. We are especially excited that members of our Pride network attended Swindon & Wiltshire Pride, an event local to our High Street support centre, reflecting our ongoing commitment to equality and showcasing the strength of our collective spirit. Here’s how we joined the celebration: 💧 We distributed free bottles of water during the Pride March as it passed through Swindon town centre to keep everyone refreshed and hydrated. 🎪 We sponsored the Family Circus Zone, a fun and inclusive space for families to enjoy the day together. 🎨 We hosted arts and crafts activities for all ages. Together, we can make a difference and build a community where everyone can be their true selves. ✨
A big WHSmith welcome to our incoming graduates! We all know it can be a little daunting starting a new job or setting out on a new career. That’s we hosted a get together with our incoming graduates and the wider team so they can get to know us and hear about what it’s like at WHSmith before they get started. Our graduates are given extensive opportunities to learn and develop across all areas of the business from day one and we want them to hit the ground running. Welcome to Sophie Isbell, Owen W., Arthur MacNaughtan, Estera Stirbu and Rebecca Grobler we can’t wait for you to join us in September. hashtag#ForEveryCareerJourneyTheresAWHSmith
We’re in our strongest ever position as a global travel retailer 🌍 This is as a result of our relentless focus on the four key pillars of our strategy, which includes winning and opening new stores in new and existing markets. Our most recent results show the progress we’ve made so far this year. Across our Travel businesses, we have won 31 stores in the first half and we have a store pipeline of over 80 stores won and due to open over the next three years. We have a busy second half ahead and expect to open more than 50 stores. This will take the total number of store openings in the current financial year to over 100. From London Euston Station to Salt Lake City Airport – we’re growing at pace and improving our Travel store portfolio, and what’s most exciting is that we know that there are substantial opportunities to grow our business further ✈
Curi-o-city arrives in Belfast City Airport 🍀 We've opened our first curi-o-city in Northern Ireland, and our eighth store across the market. Curi-o-city offers travelling customers a high-quality range of gifts, stationery, as well as locally sourced products and a store environment inspired by the culture and heritage of Belfast. Since launching last year, curi-o-city has expanded to 23 locations across the UK and internationally and is the latest example of WHSmith adapting and innovating to create strong new, bespoke brands and retail formats for travel locations.
Continuing to celebrate #inspiring inclusion at WHSmith. One of our core values here at WHSmith is 'Value our people' This week our team attended the British Diversity Awards. Our colleague Deborah Proud was shortlisted for 'Inspirational role model of the year'. She said "Absolutely blown away and honoured to have been shortlisted for Inspirational Role Model of Year category at the British Diversity Awards."
Today some of our key people in our international team talked about #Inspiringinclusion! We talked about inspiring inclusion at every level in people's career paths, inspiring inclusion whether inside the workplace or outside of it and not to miss the point that "...men are our allies as well" a point not to be forgotten made by our Head of Central Operations International, Charlie Shikdar! Deborah Proud - International Operations Director, talked openly about her career path at the age of 16yrs being inspired by her store manager Denise to this point in time through her career where she talks about how she wants to inspire our colleagues "I inspire to be the leader I was inspired by so I can then inspire other women in their journeys..." Thank you to all our colleagues that joined the call!
In preparation for our summer campaign at WHSmith, we had the privilege of being invited to the Press Conference for the presentation of the MONTH OF OCCUPATION organized by Palma Activa. The event took place at the Town Hall and was presented by the Mayor of Palma de Mallorca. It's an excellent opportunity to network with other retailers who are getting ready to welcome new talent and support the peak season! Thank you to Palma Activa for this invitation. We will be back on February 23 to take our place in the 2024 edition of the Month of Occupation. If you are interested in joining our team this year in Palma, sign up for our offers on www.palmaactiva.com and visit us on February 23rd at Palma Activa.
