WH Smith, the travel retailer, expects profits to stay flat this year as consumers rein in spending and passenger numbers fall in North America.
The company forecast underlying pre-tax profit of £75 million to £85 million for the year to August 2027, in line with market expectations.
That compares with £76 million last year, down from £108 million the year before.
Like-for-like sales, which strip out new and closed stores, were flat in the first ten weeks of the new financial year.
UK sales rose 1% on that basis, but North America fell 5%.
WH Smith expects UK revenue to be broadly flat this year and Rest of the World sales to fall 10% to 20% as it pulls out of several countries.
Heavy writedowns
Revenue rose 5% to £1.6 billion in the year to 31 August, with like-for-like growth of 2%.
UK trading profit fell to £107 million from £130 million because of higher airport rents, inflation and increased discounting as shoppers became more cautious.
The group swung to a statutory pre-tax loss of £107 million from a £2 million profit.
It booked £164 million of one-off charges, including about £103 million of writedowns and onerous contract costs, mostly on North American stores.
Underlying earnings per share fell 30% to 30.3p.
There is no final dividend.
Store exits
Executive chair Leo Quinn said the company had started a "fundamental reset" to cut costs, improve cash generation and close loss-making stores.
WH Smith will close all its Resorts fashion stores in North America by April and expects to shut around 50 InMotion electronics stores over the medium term.
It is also leaving the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Net debt fell to £325 million from £390 million, helped by a £103 million share placing in June.
