CNCT.L Regulatory News (CNCT)

Smiths News PLC

Smiths News agrees five year contract extension with Trinity Mirror PLC

New contact secures c£143m of annual revenues

Smiths News PLC ('Smiths News'), the largest UK newspaper and magazine wholesaler, a leading UK book supplier and a leading distributor of consumable products to the education market, is pleased to announce it has reached agreement with Trinity Mirror Newspapers to extend their newspaper wholesaling agreement until October 2019.

This new agreement secures 56% market share of Trinity Mirror's distribution business for an additional five years.

The contract is valued at c.£143m pa (at FY13 values) equating to 15% of the national newspaper distribution market. Trinity Mirror publishes The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People along with Regional titles Newcastle Chronicle, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Mail. Smiths News has now secured c.£900m per annum of revenues through to 2019 equating to 63% of total sales.

Mark Cashmore, Chief Executive Officer, commented

"Today's announcement extends our relationship with one of our largest newspaper publishers in the UK. Our longstanding relationship with Trinity Mirror has delivered incremental revenue growth over the past 5 years as they have outsourced significant regional business to us. This, coupled with our strong renewal rate, is a clear endorsement of our market leading proposition."