Smiths News has unveiled plans to expand the types of products it supplies to stores, it revealed during its announcement for its financial results for the 52 weeks ended 26 August.
Chief executive officer Jonathan Bunting said he hoped to improve profits and revenues by “leveraging our capabilities in new and complementary markets”.
This would involve adding new revenue streams to sit alongside recent initiatives like Smiths News Recycle and the distribution of books, DVDs and other products. “Walk into any supermarket and look at the magazine aisle,” Bunting said. “Walk into any convenience store and see what they’re selling. We want to expand there.”
When asked about specific categories, he said Smiths would “absolutely” consider greetings cards, and he expected the customer base for books and DVDs to expand over the next year. Currently, these media products are only being supplied to supermarkets, but distributor Frontline previously told RN it also hoped to bring them to independent stores.
Chief financial officer Paul Baker added that with these expansions, Smiths is “looking to expand with the skills and capabilities we have that are underused”.
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Bunting promised that news, magazines and collectables would be protected, saying Smiths would “enhance” its market by “adding new profit streams” and “not grow more profit streams at the expense of Smiths News wholesale. I think print will be around longer than many give it credit for,” he said.
Smiths News Recycling is also poised to expand, having already been rolled out to 1,000 bookmakers alongside the 3,000 independent stores using the service. Bunting said the service is “making the category easier for retail customers”.
He said Smiths hopes to offer the service to shops on parades next to the convenience stores and newsagents it is already working with. Profits and revenues were up, and 65% of publisher contracts were assured until 2029.
The improvement in revenue is in part thanks to increased news sales following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles III and the FIFA Men’s World Cup. In the 10 days following the queen’s death, 5.4 million additional newspapers were sold.
Baker commented that while revenue was up overall, it would be down 8% if these one-off events were excluded. “We expect revenue to return slowly to previous trends,” he added, referring to a continuing decline in print sales, which was offset by the last year’s cover-price rises and boosts in sales.
Smiths has also regained use of its Oxford depot following the recurrence of a gas leak. The leak has now been contained to a small area and operations in the site have returned to normal.
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