WH Smith said today it expects to burn up to £20m a month in cash until March, eating into its remaining resources as it strives to ride out Britain's latest round of stringent coronavirus lockdowns.
The company's shops, which sell newspapers, sweets and crisps, are a fixture of towns, hospitals and airports.
It said it had performed better than expected in the run up to Christmas, generating cash from its businesses.
The retailer also said that its forecasts for its cash position by March were in line with earlier expectations, and that it now had around £340m in funds available including £90m cash on account and some £70m in restructuring and other dues.
The Covid-19 pandemic has kept people indoors under strict restrictions and depleted both domestic and international travel, hammering revenue from WH Smith's network of hundreds of small kiosks and stores.
Sales from its travel business for the 20 weeks to January 16 were just at 37% of the levels during the same period in 2019, leading to overall sales for WH Smith at 59% of the year-ago period.
The company operates shops at Dublin Airport's Terminal 2.
Revenue from WH Smith's high street business, however, stood strong at 87%, the company said.
Founded more than 200 years ago as a news vendor in London, WH Smith has been expanding its footprint to offset pressure.
It said its North American market, its second biggest, has shown quicker recovery because of higher volumes of domestic travel.
The company also said it had not used the £300m of aid it had received from the British government and said the financing facility was being reviewed.
WH Smith also said it has not seen any disruption from Britain's exit from the European Union, and does not anticipate major challenges to imports.
