Bestselling Irish authors Paul Murray, Colm Tóibín and Marian Keyes as well as rising passenger numbers at Dublin Airport helped pretax profits at the Irish arm of bookseller WH Smith increase by 40 per cent to €6.62 million last year.
New accounts filed by WH Smith Ireland Ltd show profits surged as revenues increased by 14 per cent from €53.68 million to a record €61.26 million in the 12 months to the end of August.
The company – which operates the bulk of its Irish business out of Dublin Airport – benefited from last year’s passenger numbers increasing to 33.3 million.
“There are a total of 10 WH Smith outlets at Dublin Airport – six full units and four kiosks,” said a spokesman for airport operator DAA.
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The WHS Group also operate two InMotion electronics stores at Dublin Airport.
“The contract for the outlets that WH Smith operate is due to finish at the end of 2025 and will go to tender later this year.”
WH Smith also operates two outlets each at Shannon and Cork airports.
Its pretax profits of €6.62 million follow €4.72 million for the 2023 financial year.
Globally, WH Smith’s “travel” retail shops selling newspapers, books, magazines and stationery made up the large bulk of revenues accounting for 76 per cent or £1.46 billion of a total of £1.9 billion in the year under review.
Last month, WH Smith sold its 480 strong high street store division to the owner of Hobbycraft in a £76 million deal. The stores are to be rebranded TGJones as WH Smith concentrates on its lucrative travel business.
The accounts disclosed that last July WH Smith Ireland paid out an initial €5.84 million and a deferred €318,248 to Newsrail Resources Ltd for retail stores at three locations here.
The retailer’s financial performance last year easily topped pre-Covid 19 revenues of €33.2 million in the 12 months to the end of August 2019.
The company last year recorded a gross profit of €40.52 million. Distribution costs of €25.7 million in addition to administrative expenses of €8.188 million reduced its operating profit to €6.62 million.
The profit also takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.49 million.
The firm recorded post-tax profits of €5.78 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €844,665.
Numbers employed by the company increased from 175 to 193. Staff costs rose from €4.5 million to €5.16 million.
At the end of last August, the firm had accumulated profits of €15.2 million. Cash funds increased from €1.24 million to €1.37 million.
