With senior management from WH Smith in the UK here to meet Australian franchises – Wild and Supanews – I’m told there will be announcements relating to these businesses and maybe other business activity they are considering for Australia.
My expectation is there will be movement on their Australian retail footprint as the Wild and Supanews footprint is not sufficient a retail footprint for the WH Smith model of wholesale supply to work as they expect. While I have no inside information, I speculate that they would need around 500 retail outlets here to achieve the level of efficiency in the supply chain they should be looking for. If I am right, considerable more acquisition or new store activity would be needed.
Oh good they can buy me out.