Samsung spinoff Solum is deploying electronic shelf labels (ESLs) across UK retailer WH Smith’s travel estate, starting with high-footfall locations including the recently opened flagship stores at Heathrow Airport.

The rollout supports WH Smith’s flagship stores at Heathrow Terminals 3, 4 and 5 as part of a broader deployment across the retailer’s travel retail network. It is designed to strengthen pricing accuracy, improve shelf-edge communication and support more efficient store operations.

The Heathrow stores mark the latest phase in the retailer’s long-standing relationship with the UK’s largest airport. Designed for time-pressed passengers seeking a broader mix of essentials in one place, the stores bring together food and drink, health and beauty, technology accessories, pharmacy services, and other travel essentials in a single format.

In this fast-moving environment, clear and responsive shelf-edge communication is essential to a smoother customer journey. Solum’s Newton ESLs enable WH Smith to update pricing and promotional information more efficiently, helping shoppers navigate busy travel stores while supporting store staff in maintaining consistency across rapidly changing categories.

By replacing manual paper ticketing with digital shelf-edge communication, the ESLs help reduce repetitive in-store tasks, improve price and promotion management, and support a more consistent operating model across complex, high-footfall travel locations.

To support the rollout, WH Smith has selected Newton Pro, Solum’s flagship ESL designed for demanding retail environments such as airports, railway stations and major transport hubs. Combining durability, long battery performance, over-the-air updates and programmable button functionality, Newton Pro provides a digital foundation for store formats that require speed, reliability and operational consistency. Its interactive functionality also creates the potential to support a wider range of future in-store scenarios, from operational workflows to customer-facing services.

“At WH Smith, our focus is on making every journey better by bringing together all of the essentials travellers need in one place,” said Heidi Reynolds, retail director at WH Smith. “As we continue to evolve our offer, the ESLs help us support a clearer and more intuitive customer experience while enabling colleagues to operate more efficiently in busy travel environments.”

Mark Duckworth from Solum added: “WH Smith’s new flagship stores reflect the continued evolution of travel retail, where convenience, speed and clarity are essential to the customer journey. We are proud to support WH Smith with ESLs designed for high-footfall environments, helping improve shelf-edge accuracy, operational efficiency and the in-store experience across key travel locations. This partnership is an important milestone for Solum as we continue to strengthen our presence in the UK travel retail market.”

With more than 1200 stores across over 30 countries worldwide, WH Smith (www.whsmithplc.co.uk) offers passengers a wide range of food, drinks, health and beauty, books and tech for their journeys. The company has over 600 stores primarily across the world’s airports. This includes more than 300 stores in North America.

Founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Solum (www.solumesl.com) is a publicly traded company specialising in power products, display technologies and ESLs for the retail sector.