Retailer WH Smith set to lose up to 20 million pounds a month till March

(Reuters) – WH Smith said on Wednesday it expects to burn up to 20 million pounds a month in cash until March, eating into its remaining resources as it strives to ride out Britain’s latest round of stringent coronavirus lockdowns.

The company, whose shops selling newspapers, sweets and crisps are a fixture of UK high streets, hospitals and airports, said it had performed better than expected in the run up to Christmas, generating cash from its businesses.

The retailer also said that its forecasts for its cash position by March were in line with earlier expectations, and that it now had around 340 million in funds available including 90 million cash on account and some 70 million in restructuring and other dues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has kept people indoors under strict restrictions and depleted both domestic and international travel, hammering revenue from WH Smith’s network of hundreds of small kiosks and stores.

Sales from its travel business for the 20 weeks to Jan. 16 were just at 37% of the levels during the same period in 2019, leading to overall sales for WH Smith at 59% of the year-ago period. Revenue from WH Smith’s high street business, however, stood strong at 87%, the company said.

Founded more than 200 years ago as a news vendor in London, WH Smith has been expanding its footprint to offset pressure, and the North American market, its second biggest, has shown quicker recovery because of higher volumes of domestic travel, the retailer said.

The company also said it had not used the 300 million pounds of aid it had received from the British government and said the financing facility was being reviewed.

Furthermore, WH Smith said it has not seen any disruption from Britain’s exit from the European Union, and does not anticipate major challenges to imports.

($1 = 0.7321 pounds)

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)