WH Smith is set for a major ramp-up of its food offer in 2025.
The retailer achieved “record sales” following the launch of its first own label food to go range earlier this year. It plans to build on that momentum by expanding its own label offer further and by rolling out a new hot food café format to more sites, WH Smith Travel MD Andrew Harrison told The Grocer.
To kick it off, Smith’s will expand its own label into a new category, with the launch of a new bakery range under its Smith’s Family Kitchen brand in January. The initial 11-strong lineup includes muffins, bars and flapjacks, and will launch into 250 stores. It’s been manufactured by existing Smith’s supplier Sussex Bakes.
Alongside the own-label launches, Smith’s plans to roll out its newly launched Smith’s Kitchen café format. A trial launched at Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton in August, with the current offer – which includes burgers and chicken burgers – “going down really well” with customers, Harrison said. Separately, it has also been trialling a new hot food and coffee counter at Churchill Hospital in Oxfordshire since July.
The retailer aims to open 10-15 new stores next year, some of which will include the hot food and coffee offer, Harrison said.
“We haven’t yet got a number in mind, but we’re working through how we might be able to give ourselves a pipeline in this area,” Harrison said. The cafés would be added to new stores in hospitals “in the main”.
“As much as being about product, it’s been making sure we are able to do this properly and with authority,” Harrison said. “We’re getting to the point where we are getting proof of concept, so now it’s a question of how we build on our plans to grow that out.”
The retailer would also continue to expand its range of branded confectionery, snacks and drinks alongside its own labels as part of the ongoing offer. “We’ve got lots of plans in the pipeline,” Harrison said.
Investment into stores alongside food offer
Over the past decade, WH Smith has been transitioning from its heritage as a high street book and stationery seller, into a “one-stop shop” for travel. Sales from its UK Travel business – which covers its stores at UK railway stations, airports and hospitals – grew 20% to £122m in annual results published earlier this month.
Following the “seamless” launch of its first ever own-label Christmas sandwich range last week, Smith’s revealed that food to go now accounts for 15% of WH Smith Travel’s overall sales. However, when combined with chilled food, drinks and confectionery, it can be significantly higher at some locations, Harrison said.
At the moment, the business has no “hard and fast number” on how much it anticipates that to grow – publicly at least – but it would continue with its “forensic” approach to adapt its offer in the way that best meets customer needs, Harrison said.
“We’re really excited about what having our own food brand is doing for us, especially in this travel space,” Harrison said. “We’ll continue to work with suppliers, using their experience to bring forward new ideas as well.”
As it has transitioned its business, WH Smith has invested in bringing “food experience” into its head office team over the past couple of years. The business is also now working with a third-party consultancy to develop products and ranges, something that “we had not done before” Harrison said.
The work behind the scenes has been replicated at the front, with Smith’s refitting stores to make meal deals and food “much easier to shop”.
It includes the latest version of its “one-stop-shop” convenience format at Birmingham Airport, which opened last year. Free-standing fridges have been added to prominent locations in store, and more PoS has been added to signpost the food offer.
The work – which also includes a massive ramp-up of its health and beauty offer to 3,000 SKUs – has seen Birmingham go from the retailer’s 15th-biggest store, to its third-highest grossing in the space of a year.
“It’s showing a very different side to WH Smith by leading in with food, which perhaps we wouldn’t have done a couple of years ago,” Harrison said. “It shows the confidence we’ve got.”
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