WH Smith will disappear from Britain’s town centres for good after the business sold its UK high street chain in a deal that will see stores eventually rebrand as ‘TGJones’.

The sale worth £76million was agreed with Modella Capital, which already owns Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop and is also looking at buying Lakeland.

However the deal does not include WH Smith’s travel locations, such as shops in airports and train stations, which will stay as ‘WH Smith’ – nor the WHSmith brand.

But all the approximately 480 stores and 5,000 staff working for the high street businesses will move under Modella Capital’s ownership as part of the deal.

The estate – not including the travel locations – are set to rebrand as TGJones, which marks the end of an era for a business that has been on the high street since 1792.

Group chief executive Carl Cowling said: ‘As we continue to deliver on our strategic ambition to become the leading global travel retailer, this is a pivotal moment for WHSmith as we become a business exclusively focused on travel.

‘As our travel business has grown, our UK high street business has become a much smaller part of the WHSmith Group.

A WH Smith store in Orpington, South East London, in January

A WHSmith store in 1918

‘High Street is a good business; it is profitable and cash generative with an experienced and high-performing management team.

‘However, given our rapid international growth, now is the right time for a new owner to take the high street business forward and for the WHSmith leadership team to focus exclusively on our travel business. I wish the High Street team every success.’

In January, WH Smith had said sales at its high street estate remained under pressure.

Total high street sales dropped 6 per cent in the 21 weeks to January 25, covering the key Christmas season, down 3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Earlier that month the business had confirmed talks were being held about potentially selling its high street stores to focus on its larger travel operation.

The group had said that the fall in high street sales was in line with its expectations while it added that its travel shops based in airports, railway stations and hospitals delivered an ‘excellent performance’ with like-for-like sales up 6 per cent in the five-month period.

This London stall includes a newspaper headline about the Hindenburg disaster in May 1937, when 35 people died in an airship explosion in the US

Legendary broadcaster Richard Dimbleby (left) is seen here filming at a WH Smith branch in Victoria station in central London for a French television show in March 1956

This helped revenues overall rise 3 per cent on a same-store basis.

The group also said at the time that the high street arm came out of the Christmas trading season with ‘a clean stock position and we are on track to deliver our targeted full-year cost savings of £11million’.

But the results laid bare the challenge facing the high street arm, which has seen trading flag in recent years, with the group cutting costs and shutting unprofitable shops in response.

Its woes were compounded by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget announcements last October that will send its wage bill soaring by £20million.

Earlier in January, WH Smith said it planned to close 17 of its high street shops during 2025, having shut 14 in the past financial year.

The high street business had accounted for only around 15 per cent of annual group trading profit, with the travel division having overtaken it as WH Smith has expanded it into North America and worldwide.

The WH Smith name has been a constant fixture on high streets since the first shop opened on Little Grosvenor Street in London in 1792.

The initial venture was a news stall by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna.

WH Smith’s hexagon logo, with brown and orange branding, was introduced in 1973

This WH Smith branch in Kings Cross railway station in London is pictured in 1998

Their son William Henry Smith was also born that same year and went on to take control of the firm, overseeing its expansion while giving the company his own name.

He took charge in 1812 after his parents had both died, at a time when the company was valued at £1,280 – the equivalent of just over £100,000 today.

William Henry and then his son of the same name led the growth from a humble news vendor and bookseller to a trading operation making the most of sites in new railway stations opening across the country.

Their first station store was at Euston in 1848, followed by the likes of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.

These were moves which would later be reflected in store launches at UK airports, where WH Smith outlets still remain – even as they have been dwindling in towns and city centres.

Financial pressures intensified by the pandemic have not helped in recent years and saw various branch shutdowns go from temporary to permanent.

WH Smith outlets remain familiar sights at UK airports including this one at Gatwick

A blue plaque in Paddington, west London, marks the former home of William Henry Smith whose parents had set up the company’s first news vendor stall in 1792

Yet the firm was already facing difficulties, with the rise of online retailers as well as competition from supermarkets muscling in on news, books and entertainment products.

The last Smith family member on the board left in 1996.

There had been promising expansion over the preceding decades, including the purchase of DIY chain Do It All from 1979 onwards and a tie-up with Boots in 1990.

WH Smith also scooped a 75 per cent share in record store firm Our Price in 1986, before selling it 12 years later to the Virgin Retail Group for £145million.

That same year WH Smith paid £68million for the shops owned by former arch rival John Menzies, having seen off their high street threat.

But time is now catching with WH Smith, despite various attempts to reinvigorate the company this century.

Global investment firm Permira attempted a takeover in 2004, only for it to fall through, before two years later the firm was split in half – with one operation focusing on retail, the other on newspaper and magazine distribution.

There were further investments of their own, including the purchase in 2010 of online greeting card retailer Funky Pigeon as well as The Gadget Shop.

But over the past decade, WH Smith’s high street sales have slumped from £684million to £452million – and those stores are now being sold off so the business can focus on its travel arm.