Smiths News PLC is a young and ambitious PLC, created by the demerger of the WHSmith Group in 2006. Our strategy is focused on providing excellent service combined with the most efficient operation.
We aim to provide our customers with:
• World class logistics for news and book distribution
• Clearly defined services, tailored to each customer group
• Industry leading IT systems
• Dedicated account management for key customers
• Focused cost control that delivers unsurpassed efficiency
• A partnership in profit’ –growing our customers’ profits in tandem with ours.
Our vision statement
The Group aims to be the market leader in newspaper, magazine and book distribution, and a major player in new markets that build on our skills and competencies, creating demonstrable value for shareholders.
We plan to deliver profit growth and cash generation to our shareholders by following clear focused strategies that benefit all stakeholders.
Our strategy
Our strategy is based on five key principles:
Service leadership
Service is at the heart of all we do. We invest to maintain our leadership, providing customers with the most comprehensive range of services in the market. We monitor performance at every level and continually strive to improve standards. Our consistency of performance and focused investment to is why publishers and retailers rank us the top performer in independently conducted market surveys.
Efficiency
Efficiency goes hand in hand with service. Our approach is to get it ‘right first time’, minimizing rectification costs and meeting customer needs. But our commitment to efficiency goes well beyond this. Our investments in IT, in state of the art depots and in ‘smart’ marketing systems, are all designed to maximise efficiency and minimise waste. We continually challenge the cost base of the business, reinventing processes to ensure we can offer unmatchable value to customers.
Revenue Growth
Increasing revenues is fundamental to our growth as a Company. We plan to achieve this from a combination of organic growth, market share gains and the acquisition of complementary businesses. In 2009 we have grown our revenues by circa £600m, taking total Group turnover from £1.2bn per annum to a projected £1.8bn per annum in 2010. We achieved this from a combination of unprecedented contract gains and the acquisition of Bertrams.
Diversification
The Group has the capability and experience to operate in adjacent markets that build on our skills and competencies. We continue to investigate those markets to which we can add value for customers and shareholders alike.
People
We aim to attract and retain the best people, and we recognise that employee satisfaction is a key driver of success. To achieve this, our people strategy has three clear goals:
Maintaining and increasing a pool of leading talent at all levels in the Group.
To support this we have a comprehensive training and development programme, including an apprentice scheme, graduate scheme, leadership group and leadership development programme.
Providing satisfying career opportunities for all our staff.
We offer all our staff the opportunity to develop their careers in ways that meets their professional and personal needs. We are proud that the majority of our managers have long service, in many cases starting their careers at a junior level; their experience is a key strength of the Group.
Excellent communications and employee engagement.
We want all our staff to be motivated by, and aligned to, the success of the company. Clear and regular communication is a priority, particularly on the issues and decisions that affect them most. Our employee forum and employee surveys help us understand the views of staff, drawing on their ideas to make us a better business.