WH Smith has announced a profit for the last half year trading period.
The newsagent said it had seen a five percent rise in its figures, giving it a pre-tax profit of £69 million, with its successful “travel shops” helping it out and offsetting the falling sales it had experienced on the highstreet.
Its stores in airports, railway stations and motorway service areas saw a rise of seven percent, for the year ending in February, which outperformed the company’s traditional highstreet stores that rose by two percent.
The company also said various cost cutting measures shaving £9 million off its costs and outlining a further £8 million reductions in the future.
However it said that the trading environment would “remain challenging”.
The company currently has 621 high street stores in the UK and has also announced a move into China with plans to open 30 kiosks in the country.
