WH Smith name’s disappearance from Inverness High Street looms? Planning application lodged with Highland Council for rebrand as TG Jones
The disappearance of the WH Smith name from UK high streets looks set to reach Inverness in the near future.
The company sold off almost 500 of its high street stores to Modella Capital in a £76 million deal back in March to focus instead solely on its sites at travel hubs like airports and railways.
Prior to the deal, its travel retail arm accounted for almost three-quarters of the 232-year-old brand’s revenue, while its high street stores had seen declining sales.
The sale of the high street outlets secured the future of those shops, which employ around 5000 people, but meant that many WH Smith stores are now slowly being rebranded to TG Jones - a made up name chosen by the new owners of the outlets to convey a similar sense of history as the old brand.
And an application has now been submitted to erect new TG Jones branding on the WH Smith shopfront in Inverness High Street.
If approved, the signs will be a “like-for-like” replacement of the existing ones, featuring the same dark blue colour as WH Smith's, but with white TG Jones lettering replacing the current name.
It is not yet known when the new brand will replace WH Smith's, but the submission of the planning application means such a revamp is not far off.
However, while WH Smith's High Street days are numbered, the store itself will continue to operate as a newsagents and stationers - just operating under the new name.
And the WH Smith name will not be disappearing from Inverness entirely - with the outlet within Inverness Railway Station remaining within the venerable 18th century company's shop portfolio as part of its renewed focus on travellers.
There is also a WH Smith as Inverness Airport.
