news plc type plc traded as lse cnct industry distribution founded 2006 headquarters swindon united kingdom products newspapers and magazines consumables books brands bertram books revenue 1 089 million gbp 2014 1 website www.connectgroupplc.com connect group plc is a specialist distributor headquartered in swindon england . the company originally known as whsmith news was created and renamed smiths news plc on 1 september 2006 from the demerger of w h smith plc. 2 in april 2014 smiths news plc rebranded as connect group plc to reflect the diversity of the group s markets . connect group plc is made up of four divisions news & media including smiths news the newspaper and magazine distributor ; books including the book wholesaler bertrams ; education & care including the consortium and west mercia supplies ; and parcel freight including tuffnells . contents 1 demerger 2 rebrand to connect group plc 3 connect news & media 4 connect books 5 connect education & care 6 connect parcel freight 7 references 8 external links demerger edit on 12 april 2006 the board of wh smith plc announced its intention to demerge the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies . the resulting companies are w h smith plc continues as the retail arm and smiths news plc former news distribution arm . 3 the demerger took effect on 30 august 2006 . rebrand to connect group plc edit on 17 march 2014 smiths news plc announced it would be renamed connect group plc. this took effect on 22 april 2014 and introduced a divisional reporting structure consisting of three divisions connect news & media connect education & care and connect books . the trading companies including smiths news the consortium and bertrams will remain the same and continue to trade under their current names . 4 connect news & media edit connect news & media is made up of many businesses but that its main business is smiths news which delivers to 22 000 customers via its 46 distribution centres across the united kingdom . it employs 4 312 people and has sales of 1 067 million . its main competitors are menzies distribution . it currently has a 55 % market share . 5 connect books edit on 20 march 2009 bertram a book wholesaler entered administration and on the same day ernst & young sold the business to smiths news for 8 611 622 in a pre pack deal . 6 7 this division also contains dawson books erasmus and wordery . 8 connect education & care edit on 24 april 2012 the consortium a wholesaler to the education and care sector was acquired by smiths news plc. connect parcel freight edit in november 2014 connect group bought tuffnells parcel delivery company for 113.4 million . 9 references edit annual report and accounts 2014 connect group . viewed online 21 march 2015 . smiths news about us smiths news . viewed online 8 october 2006 . separation of w h smith retail and news distribution businesses via a demerger w h smith plc. viewed online 8 october 2006 . smiths news to vbe rebranded as connect severing its print history . the guardian . retrieved 25 march 2014 . news & media division companies . connectgroupplc.com . norwich evening news 20 march 2009 letter from ernst & young dated 26 march 2009 books division companies . connectgroupplc.com . connect group acquires tuffnells parcel express . telegraph.co.uk . 12 november 2014 . external links edit official website this article about a retailer in the united kingdom is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title connect group & oldid 710189485 categories companies listed on the london stock exchangelogistics companies of the united kingdomunited kingdom retail company stubshidden categories official website different in wikidata and wikipediaall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 march 2016 at 13 59 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view