LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - WH Smith posted a 4% jump in revenue for the 21 weeks to 25 January on Wednesday as it hailed strong momentum in the travel business, while high street sales fell as expected.
Total travel revenue rose 8% at constant currency and 6% on a like-for-like basis, while revenue from the high street business fell 6% and 3%, respectively.

WH Smith, which announced on Monday that it was considering the potential sale of the high street business, said the performance of this segment was in line with its expectations.

Chief executive Carl Cowling said: "The group has had a good start to the financial year, and we continue to see strong momentum across our core travel business.

"Our UK travel business has delivered another excellent performance across all channels, as we continue to make good progress with the rollout of our one-stop-shop for travel essentials format.

"In North America, we have seen a notable shift in like-for-like revenue growth, up 3%, as a result of the actions we have taken to enhance our ranges and introduce new categories. We are also delighted to announce that we have won 8 stores at Orlando airport, further to our announcement in November and, more recently, a further 4 stores at Portland airport. We now have a new store pipeline of circa 60 stores in North America."

At 0810 GMT, the shares were up 5.3% at 1,253p.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: "The core travel business is doing the heavy lifting as WH Smith continues to reap the rewards of captive customers in key locations.

"Earlier this week, the shares reacted positively after confirming that it was giving consideration to hiving off its high street business. The unit has been something of a drag on the group more recently, with store closures, margin pressures and faltering progress being in contrast to the travel business which is currently responsible for 85% of trading profit.

"The announcement seems to have been vindicated by this statement, which revealed a disappointing 6% drop in revenues compared to the previous year, although more positively the unit exited the Christmas season with a clean stock position and is on track to deliver annual cost savings of £11 million.

"Even so, given the general pressure on the high street, let alone the question marks over the UK consumer's propensity to spend this year, the potential exit of the high street business could come just at the right time and would allow fuller focus on the main travel unit."

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