WH Smith high street stores sold for £76m and rebranded as TGJones

WHSmith is to sell its 480 high street stores to the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital, in a deal worth £76m, and has confirmed that the 233-year-old brand will disappear from town centres after a "short transitional period".

- Mark Sweney Sarah Butler

Under the terms of the deal, the high street business, which employs 5,000 staff, will be rebranded as TGJones starting from about June when the deal is expected to complete. WH Smith is retaining its name for its shops in railway stations, airports and hospitals.

The books and stationery retailer will keep its almost 1,300 travel stores and its website, although it will no longer offer online sales and will only provide information.

Modella is buying the WH Smith online trading operation, which it is expected to operate under the TGJones name. It did not buy the digital greetings card business Funky Pigeon, however, and WH Smith is now looking at "strategic options" for that, including potentially selling it.

Last month, industry experts predicted that at least half of the 480 WH Smith high street stores could be closed after a sale, raising the prospect of sweeping job cuts.

Nicholas Found, a consultant at the industry analysts Retail Economics, said: "The move for WH Smith is a clear reflection of the structural pressures squeezing legacy high street retailers. With falling footfall, rising business rates and wage inflation, the economics of the high street have become increasingly unforgiving, with many grappling to find relevance in a digital-first era."