WH Smith Management
Management criteria checks 2/4
WH Smith's CEO is Carl Cowling, appointed in Nov 2019, has a tenure of 5.08 years. total yearly compensation is £2.66M, comprised of 24.2% salary and 75.8% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 0.048% of the company’s shares, worth £722.99K. The average tenure of the management team and the board of directors is 5.1 years and 1.8 years respectively.
Key information
Carl Cowling
Chief executive officer
UK£2.7m
Total compensation
| CEO salary percentage | 24.2% |
| CEO tenure | 5.1yrs |
| CEO ownership | 0.05% |
| Management average tenure | 5.1yrs |
| Board average tenure | 1.8yrs |
Recent management updates
Recent updates
CEO Compensation Analysis
| Date | Total Compensation | Salary | Company Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31 2024 | UK£3m | UK£644k | UK£67m |
| May 31 2024 | n/a | n/a | UK£66m |
| Feb 29 2024 | n/a | n/a | UK£64m |
| Nov 30 2023 | n/a | n/a | UK£72m |
| Aug 31 2023 | UK£3m | UK£610k | UK£79m |
| May 31 2023 | n/a | n/a | UK£73m |
| Feb 28 2023 | n/a | n/a | UK£67m |
| Nov 30 2022 | n/a | n/a | UK£57m |
| Aug 31 2022 | UK£2m | UK£585k | UK£47m |
| May 31 2022 | n/a | n/a | UK£6m |
| Feb 28 2022 | n/a | n/a | -UK£35m |
| Nov 30 2021 | n/a | n/a | -UK£58m |
| Aug 31 2021 | UK£1m | UK£550k | -UK£82m |
| May 31 2021 | n/a | n/a | -UK£201m |
| Feb 28 2021 | n/a | n/a | -UK£321m |
| Nov 30 2020 | n/a | n/a | -UK£280m |
| Aug 31 2020 | UK£608k | UK£482k | -UK£239m |
| May 31 2020 | n/a | n/a | -UK£68m |
| Feb 29 2020 | n/a | n/a | UK£102m |
| Nov 30 2019 | n/a | n/a | UK£104m |
| Aug 31 2019 | UK£2m | UK£201k | UK£106m |
Compensation vs Market: Carl's total compensation ($USD3.35M) is above average for companies of similar size in the UK market ($USD2.40M).
Compensation vs Earnings: Carl's compensation has been consistent with company performance over the past year.
CEO
Carl Cowling (51 yo)
5.1yrs
Tenure
UK£2,659,000
Compensation
Mr. Carl David Cowling has been Group Chief Executive at WH Smith PLC since November 01, 2019. Mr. Cowling served as Managing Director of High Street Business at WH Smith PLC since 2017 until November 01,...
Leadership Team
| Name | Position | Tenure | Compensation | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group Chief Executive & Director | 5.1yrs | UK£2.66m | 0.048% £ 733.4k | |
| COO, CFO & Director | less than a year | no data | no data | |
| Legal Director & Company Secretary | 26.3yrs | no data | no data |
5.1yrs
Average Tenure
51yo
Average Age
Experienced Management: SMWHL's management team is seasoned and experienced (5.1 years average tenure).
Board Members
| Name | Position | Tenure | Compensation | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group Chief Executive & Director | 5.8yrs | UK£2.66m | 0.048% £ 733.4k | |
| COO, CFO & Director | no data | no data | no data | |
| Independent Chairman | 2.3yrs | UK£318.00k | 0.0054% £ 82.5k | |
| Independent Non-Executive Director | 4.3yrs | UK£88.00k | 0.0019% £ 30.0k | |
| Non-Executive Director | less than a year | UK£11.00k | no data | |
| Non-Executive Director | less than a year | UK£40.00k | 0.00097% £ 14.9k | |
| Senior Independent Director | 5.8yrs | UK£80.00k | no data | |
| Independent Non-Executive Director | 1.4yrs | UK£64.00k | no data |
1.8yrs
Average Tenure
57yo
Average Age
Experienced Board: SMWHL's board of directors are not considered experienced ( 1.8 years average tenure), which suggests a new board.
Company Analysis and Financial Data Status
| Data | Last Updated (UTC time) |
|---|---|
| Company Analysis | 2024/12/27 20:16 |
| End of Day Share Price | 2024/12/24 00:00 |
| Earnings | 2024/08/31 |
| Annual Earnings | 2024/08/31 |
Data Sources
The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.
| Package | Data | Timeframe | Example US Source * |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company Financials | 10 years |
| |
| Analyst Consensus Estimates | +3 years |
|
|
| Market Prices | 30 years |
| |
| Ownership | 10 years |
| |
| Management | 10 years |
| |
| Key Developments | 10 years |
|
* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.
Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.
Analysis Model and Snowflake
Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.
Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.
Industry and Sector Metrics
Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .
Analyst Sources
WH Smith PLC is covered by 35 analysts. 11 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.
| Analyst | Institution |
|---|---|
| Richard Taylor | Barclays |
| Benjamin Sandland-Taylor | Berenberg |
| Ian Macdougall | Blue Oar Securities |