BEHIND BIG BUSINESS: SMITH NEWS

Smiths News is the UK’s leading newspaper and magazine wholesaler, delivering a huge range of print media to 24,000 customers, from superstores to corner shops.

Its business portfolio includes Martin Lavell, a corporate news distributor, DMD, a supplier of printed and digital media to airlines and travel points such as railway stations, and InStore, providing field-based merchandising and marketing.

The Facts & Figures

Smiths News has a 55% share of the UK’s newsprint media market, with around 1500 colleagues working at the company’s Swindon head office and across its 37 distribution centres, including Nursling. Staff work in shifts around the clock, with a 24-hour operation ensuring a regular flow of newspapers and magazines delivered 364 days of the year.

The History

The company began in 1792, when Anna and Henry Walton Smith had a small newsstand in Little Grosvenor Street, London. The business was taken over by their son, William Henry Smith, in 1828 and became known as WH Smith, with wholesale distribution warehouses in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. In 2006, Smiths News PLC broke away from WH Smith to create a new logistics and distribution company.

A name-change to Connect PLC in 2014 acknowledged its position as a leading specialist distributor, but the Smiths News name returned in 2020.

Here and Now

Smiths News is built on core values of trust, great service and growing in partnership. It operates in the world’s fastest and most complex supply chains and is passionate about progress.

A people-focused ethos underpins the entire company. Everyone has an important role to play, whether working in operations and business support, finance, legal, HR and sales or as one of the many self-employed drivers with their own 3.5 tonne van delivering newspapers and magazines to customers.

Smiths News is always on the lookout for top talent, so all recruitment news and vacancies – for staff and self-employed contractors – are featured on the company website.

The Future

The company continues to add value and provide solutions for client publishers and retail customers, creating a sustainable future for colleagues to work for and partners and suppliers to work with. It has just launched Smiths News Recycle, a collection service to help independent retailers manage cardboard and plastic packaging.

Community Contribution

The company works hard to support smaller retailers so that newspapers and magazines can continue to be available to those in rural areas.

It also helps to support the homeless and vulnerable through Pass It On, which was founded in 2017 by CEO Jon Bunting.

He said: “It is a charity with a clear mission, to make a difference to the lives of people struggling to survive in some of the most challenging circumstances – and that’s something that unites and motivates us all at Smith News.”

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www.smithsnews.co.uk