W H Smith plc (known colloquially as Smiths) is a British retailer, heaquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, and now motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products. It was a major distributor of newspapers and magazines (demerged in September 2006 as Smiths News plc), and formerly owned publishing businesses, and a number of other retail chains in the United Kingdom, North America, and the Pacific Rim. It is part of the FTSE 250 Index.