The new private equity owners of WH Smith’s high street stores have already started their rebranding efforts, to the dismay of some shoppers.
Hobbycraft owner Modella Capital snapped up WH Smith high street shops last month, for less than the £76million initially agreed.
Following the deal, the name WH Smith is disappearing from the high street, marking the end of an era for a business that began in 1792.
Modella is erasing WH Smith and replacing it with TGJones branded stores and products.
While the sale only applied to its high street presence and excluded the group’s travel business, the TGJones rebrand has already hit the WH Smith website.
The website whsmith.co.uk now redirects to www.tgjonesonline.co.uk and WH Smith can now be found online at whsmithplc.co.uk.
Shoppers pondering whether TGJones is a real person, perhaps with solid connections to news, books or stationery, will be disappointed.
The private equity firm previously said TGJones ‘carries the same sense of family and reflects these stores being at the heart of everyone’s high street’, but does not refer to a ‘specific person’.
Say goodbye: WH Smith’s name is disappearing from Britain’s high streets
By contrast, WH Smith gets its name from founder Henry Walton Smith, who was a news vendor in London in the eighteenth century alongside his wife Anna.
While it is still early days for the TGJones rebranding, some shoppers are unimpressed by the changes.
One poster on X, formerly Twitter, said: ‘I’ll never buy anything from TG Jones’.
Another X poster shopping in Newbury, said: ‘Planning has gone in for the new TGJones sign in Newbury, if that’s what the actual logo looks like that awful! Reminds me of the awful WHS rebrand they tried.’
A similarly unimpressed poster on X, said: ‘Whilst the reasoning behind changing well known brand name of WH Smith to TGJones may make sense at board level, it feels reminiscent to us of WPP replacing great agency names with VML.’
While displaying a video with the caption ‘This is sick’, a further poster on X said of the name change: ‘The name “TGJones” is not an individual’s name, but a fabricated name meant to evoke a sense of familiarity and a family-oriented business, similar to the original.’
Some shoppers incorrectly speculated that the rebranded name referred to Thomas George ‘TG’ Jones, who played football for Everton and Wales in the 1930s and 1940s, and died in 2004.
Modella has maintained WH Smith’s signature blue and white theme on high street shop-fronts.
‘Clearly the plan in the first instance is to emphasise continuity, but, there is an argument where maybe it would have worked better for the brand to look completely different’, retail consultant Graham Soult told Retail Gazette.
Modella has said it will keep the Post Office outlets that operate in many branches.
WH Smith is the latest in a string of once-ubiquitous names to disappear from high streets, including BHS, Debenhams, Littlewoods, Topshop and Woolworths, and many rebrandings have a patchy history of working out.
Ill-fated brand name changes include the Post Office’s attempt to name itself Consignia and finance firm Aberdeen’s decision to rename itself Abrdn. Aberdeen has since reversed this decision.
Speaking to This is Money, Graham Soult, of Canny Insights, said: ‘ When the TGJones brand was unveiled, it was hard to get too excited. After all, it was clearly trying to be as close as possible to WHSmith, in name and even white-on-blue colour choice, without actually being WHSmith. And where the old brand had oodles of heritage that started with its pioneering eponymous founder, TGJones felt oddly synthetic.
Still, shoppers will judge the stores not by the name they see over the door but by the experience they get inside, and early signs bode surprisingly well.
‘It has been refreshing to see the new owners active across social media, pushing the TGJones brand and offer, and sharing reasons to visit. Until now, I can’t actually remember the last time I saw any messaging, anywhere, saying “come to WHSmith”.
‘If TGJones can combine its marketing enthusiasm with some genuine improvements instore – more staff, better housekeeping, and new experiences to keep customers coming in, perhaps drawing from brands like Hobbycraft in the owners’ wider retail portfolio – then it’s just possible that the whole thing might work.’
What do we know about Modella Capital?
London-based private equity firm Modella has links to private equity house R Capital and is chaired by Steve Curtis, who has 40 years of retail sector experience and is connected to the rescue efforts and subsequent sales of Ted Baker, Paperchase and Jigsaw.
Modella has taken over 480 WH Smith shops in retail parks, shopping centres and on high streets, including 5,000 staff.
However, the deal did not include WH Smith’s travel locations, such as shops in airports and train stations, which will stay as WH Smith. The deal also did not include the sale of the WH Smith brand.
Modella prefers to stay low key, but is evidently on an acquisitional spree.
The WH Smith deal marked its largest acquisition to date and its fourth retail acquisition in eight months.
The private equity firm acquired 120-strong out-of-town operator Hobbycraft in August 2024, before acquiring the 180-store value operator The Original Factory Shop in February this year.
Having secured WH Smith high street shops, they have reportedly turning their attention to the kitchenware chain Lakeland as their next takeover target.
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