6 hours Ago By Peter Holmes
Vinyl LPs are returning to the shelves of a major global retailer, but it’s unclear whether Australia will be included in any rollout. The UK-based WHSmith will be stocking vinyl at 80 of its High Street stores, decades after it pivoted to CDs. The high street chain – which is selling vinyl online – said its stores, including in York, Canterbury and Edinburgh, will stock a selection of chart hits and classic albums on vinyl.
“After thirty years vinyl is back at WH Smith,” said Emma Smyth, commercial director at WHSmith High Street. “I’m sure there are many customers out there who remember spending hours in record shops browsing the latest vinyl LPs and the artistic record covers. “To me it’s no surprise that vinyl is growing in popularity again, and we are very excited to be bringing back record selections .
..” WHSmith was founded in 1792, and it has more than 1,700 stores worldwide.
The company is divided into two core businesses – WHSmith High Street and WHSmith Travel. WHSmith Melbourne T3. Image: GS Projects/Facebook.
The Travel side of the business has 750 stores globally and sells newspapers, magazines, books and “impulse products”. The stores are positioned at airports, and bus and railway stations. The High Street stores sell stationery, news, books and impulse products.
In Australia WHSmith operates Travel stores out of airports, and also WHSmith Food, which has over 30 locations in hospitals and airports around Australia under brands including Fresh+, Doctors Orders, Long Shot and The Food Depot. In 2018 WHSmith acquired InMotion, the large airport-based technology retailer in North America. InMotion.
There are now three InMotion stores in Australia, at domestic airport terminals on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne and Perth. InMotion sells in-house products alongside stock from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Bose, JBL, Sony and Sennheiser. WHSmith also owns Supanews convenience retail outlets in the ACT, NSW and QLD.
ChannelNews has sought comment from WHSmith regarding any plans to release vinyl LPs in Australia. In 2023 sales of vinyl records in Australia grew by 14 per cent to $42 million, a modest slice of overall music sales of $676 million, the majority of which was paid to streaming services..
