WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith, is a British travel retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. In the 1960s, it was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. The company sold its high street and online businesses to Modella Capital on 30 June 2025 to focus on its travel business. Modella rebranded the chain as TGJones. WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Wikipedia