IT’S synonymous with last-minute school supplies and panic buying sweets or books at the airport.
But brace yourselves, WHSmith lovers, for the high street store is to be no more . . . in name, at least.
This week, the UK chain was officially bought by Modella Capital, the owners of Hobbycraft, in a £76million deal that will save the jobs of roughly 5,000 employees, working across 480 outlets.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that the store’s famous name will gradually be replaced.
Say goodbye to WHSmith and hello to TGJones.
Change is never easy, but let’s not forget that renaming companies is nothing new.
In fact, there’s a long list of iconic brands that have wholly changed their identities, and even some that have taken on new names, then switched back to their original (take Coco Pops, which briefly became Choco Krispies).
But how many of the old-style labels do you remember?
Charlotte Oliver asks if you can match today’s brands with their former names.
1.
Named after its parent company, this famous brand became O2 when the mobile phone market exploded in the early Noughties.
2.
Some changes are subtle – like this one, which apparently happened because the cleaning brand’s name was too hard for Europeans to pronounce.
3.
Who can forget the 2007 financial crisis?
Not this bank, which dramatically collapsed before Richard Branson stepped in and acquired all branches.
4.
The insurance firm was already known as Aviva globally, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the UK division abandoned this very British name and followed suit.
5.
Jeff Bezos had lots of names in mind for his online book store, launched in 1994, including this choice, which got its own domain name (it still works, directing visitors to Amazon).
6.
What kind of world would it be without a Playboy bunny or three?
A sad one, but it almost happened until Hugh Hefner got a cease-and-desist for his previous title and decided to rebrand.
7.
Another nostalgic name from days gone by, the sweet company’s former title was part of a 1970s jingle that, if you hear it, will probably give you an instant sugar rush.
8.
Very keen to distance itself from the diet culture narrative it spearheaded for decades, this diet brand decided to simply go by its initials instead.
9.
The world is split into two age brackets: Those who are old enough to still call Snickers by its original name, and those who don’t have a clue what their elders are talking about.
10.
The dating app’s founders knew they wanted something that sparked images of fiery love.
They first plumped for another firestarter, but it didn’t hold a torch to Tinder.
11.
The beloved high street retailer had humble beginnings as a stall in an open market in Leeds in 1884 – back when it was named after its founder, Jewish-Polish refugee Michael Marks.
AND THESE BANDS DID SAME THING
OASIS
It was Liam Gallagher who suggested they change the original name in 1991 – inspired, oh so glamorously, by the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon. But the group’s previous name was really a bit of a washout.
THE BEATLES
Hard as it is to believe they were ever called anything else, a teenage John Lennon named the original group after his school, Quarry Bank High School. But they couldn’t Let It Be.
LITTLE MIX
The pop divas famously chose another name when they banded together on The X Factor in 2011, before a dispute with a children’s charity prompted a rebrand. The rest is pop history.
BLUR
Memories from the Nineties may be fuzzy, like the fact that this rock band originally went by a very different title, named after a J.D. Salinger novella.
END OF AN ERA ON HIGH STREET
THE year was 1792 and, in Mayfair, news vendor Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna had just founded their first shop on Little Grosvenor Street, WH Smith.
Henry died soon after, but his youngest son, William Henry Smith, took over, growing the business to the value of £1,280 by 1812 (that’s £116,000 in today’s money) and bringing his own son, also William Henry, on board.
Under the refreshed name, WH Smith & Son, the pair capitalised on the railway boom and started opening newsstands at stations, beginning with Euston.
They expanded to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, while operating library and publishing services.
The legacy continued, with the business passed down from generation to generation.
But in 1948, high death duties forced the Smith family to take it public, at which point shares were sold to staff members and the general public.
Henry’s descendants continued to sit on the board but, by 1996, the last family member had stepped down.
In the meantime, WHSmith (having dropped Son from its name) expanded rapidly from the 1970s, acquiring the Do It All chain of DIY shops, going into partnership with Boots and buying out Waterstones, which it later sold.
Other big deals followed, including takeovers of The Gadget Shop and card retailer Funky Pigeon, plus launching a travel division.
Yet the early Noughties proved challenging, as the chain struggled to compete with supermarkets and specialist book and music stores.
In 2020, it axed 150 head office staff and announced 25 store closures.
As shoppers bought more and more online, sales plummeted and it announced it was selling its high street business to Modella Capital.
Now, 231 years later, we say goodbye to WHSmith.
ANSWERS
1) BT Cellnet. 2) Jif. 3) Northern Rock. 4) Norwich Union. 5) Relentless. 6) Stag Party. 7) Opal Fruits. 8) Weight Watchers. 9) Marathon. 10) Matchbox. 11) Marks’ Penny Bazaar. 12) Blue Ribbon Sports. BANDS: Oasis: The Rain. The Beatles: The Quarrymen. Little Mix: Rhythmix. Blur: Seymour.
