Financial Times has renewed its contract with Smiths News to distribute the title across its territories for another five years, the wholesaler has announced.

This is one of several long-term contracts renewed by Smiths News in recent months, with Smiths stating 75% of its current newspaper and magazine revenue from publishers has now been secured until 2029.

Smiths News’ chief executive Jon Bunting announced the deal to investors stating: “We are delighted to confirm this new agreement with the Financial Times, which builds on our previously announced contract wins successfully securing contracted revenues with publishers through to 2029. Contract discussions for the remaining newspaper contracts are continuing to progress well and we remain confident that we will reach similar agreements in due course.”

The last contract renewal announced by Smiths News was with News UK earlier this year, and was preceded by agreements with Associated Newspapers, Telegraph Media Group, Frontline, Seymour Distribution. All of these titles are now confirmed until 2029

Bunting added: “Securing our publisher contracts underpins the long-term sustainability of the business and provides the platform for continued investment and future growth in line with our capital allocation policy.”

While the long-term deals between publishers and wholesalers help secure the future of the supply chain to stores, they have also been criticised by retailers large and small as a barrier to an ‘overhaul’ of the supply chain they claim is required to protect the category.