WH Smith is opting for the oldest trick in the corporate playbook. It is changing its name. It might have been better to get some new carpets – or at least to freshen up some of the display counters. As the chain’s high street shops are sold off, they will be rebranded as TG Jones, whoever the heck he was. Sure, a few nostalgics might mourn the passing of one of the oldest names on the British high street. And yet, the blunt truth is that the brand was already dead – and no one will miss it now.
If you want to buy some over-priced water, or pick up a chocolate orange from WH Smith, they will still be operating at train stations and airports. But the company has announced today that as part of the sale of its 480 high street stores to Modella Capital, a consumer and retail investment firm, it will be undergoing a rebrand. Going forward, Smiths will concentrate on its far more lucrative, global travel business, and get out of the market towns and regional centres, where for the last 233 years it has been a core feature.
The new owner will no doubt make the best of the deal, claiming that the Jones name ‘feels like a worthy successor to the WH Smith brand’ and that Jones ‘carries the same sense of family’ as the name it replaces. Well, perhaps. The marketing consultants are probably feeling pleased with themselves for coming up with a name that is just as dull as ‘Smith’. Even so, it is hard to escape the feeling that the chain’s high street business will just fade away, joining the likes of Woolworths and Dixons as brands that have long since vanished.
A few people might regret that. WH Smith was a place where people used to buy singles, when 7-inch vinyl was still a thing, where they could find the latest books, and it was where you bought a new pencil case and sharpener when it was time to go back to school at the end of the summer. In its heyday, it was a multi-media hub, the only place where, at least in provincial Britain, people could access the world through books, magazines and records. And yet, after years of penny-pinching management and under-investment, and of declining sales in its core markets, its glory days are now firmly in the past.
The WH Smith brand was trashed years ago. It is very hard to see it being revived now – and no one will miss it very much now that it is about to disappear from the high street.
Comments