WH Smith PLC (SMWH) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone. I'm Carl Cowling, Group CEO, and I'm here with Robert Moorhead, our Group CFO and COO. It's great to see those of you here in person, and welcome to everyone who has joined the webcast. As usual, we will give you an update on our performance for the six months ending the 29th of February, 2024, and we'll also run through the highlights and important strategic growth opportunities for the Group. In a moment, I will hand over to Robert, but let's start with an overview of the half and turning to slide three. We have a clear strategy to continue to build a world-class global travel retail business, and this is being executed well. As a result, we have delivered another good half, delivering profits of 46 million pounds, with total group revenue up 8%, and we continue to invest for further growth. And I'm particularly pleased with our performance in Travel UK in the half, which grew its profits by 19%. We continue to see strong momentum across all our markets as we benefit from growing passenger numbers and space growth opportunities. The team has been working exceptionally hard and we have successfully opened 53 new travel stores across all three divisions. And we now have a new store pipeline of over 80 stores, one are due to open over the next three years. Finally, the board has today announced an interim dividend of 11 pence, reflecting its confidence not just in this year, but in the group's excellent prospects. Turning to the next slide. Before I pass over to Robert, I just want to tell you why I'm so pleased with how the business has evolved into the global travel retailer we are today, and explain why there is so much more room for growth across each of our divisions. As many of you know, we have spent the past couple of years transforming...