WH Smith team trim stakes

Management at newspapers, books and stationery retailer WH Smith have pocketed almost £m from the sale of shares from an offshore trust company.

Finance boss Robert Moorhead offloaded more than 21,500 shares at a little over 339p, leaving him with almost 216,000 shares and a £73,000 cheque.

Group strategy director Neil Monnery made £71,000 from the sale of 21,000 shares at the same price. He still has 165,000 shares.

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Elsewhere, high street managing director Steve Clarke sold 13,100 shares and travel division MD Simon Marinker over 16,000, all at 339.3p

WH Smith saw like for like sales fall 5% in the 20 weeks to 17 January following a "challenging" time on the high street, although profits were in line with expectations.

The firm, which said total sales for the period were flat, reported a 7% fall in like for like high street sales for both the nine weeks and 20 week period. But excluding the entertainment business, sales were down just 3%. Gross margin improved "strongly" year on year.

"As anticipated, trading conditions on the high street were challenging over the Christmas period," said boss Kate Swann. "However, we continue to successfully deliver our strategy and maintain operational flexibility, increasing gross margins and accelerating our cost reduction plans."

"Looking ahead, we expect consumer spending in our markets to remain subdued and we have planned accordingly."