WPP chief executive Cindy Rose has called the company’s third-quarter results “unacceptable” after reporting a 3.5% drop in revenue to £3,259 million on a like-for-like basis.
For the year to date, reported revenue was down 8.0% YoY and 2.8%, while revenue less pass-through costs fell 10.5% YoY and 4.8% LFL.
The company now expects 2025 like-for-like growth in revenue less pass-through costs to range between -5.5% and -6.0%, with a headline operating profit margin of around 13%.
“There is a lot to do, and it will take time to see the impact, but in my first 60 days we are already moving at pace with some initiatives already announced and more to come,” Rose said.
“We know what it takes to win: we are optimistic, energised and confident that we’re building the right plan and the right culture to secure a bright future for WPP, our people, our clients and our shareholders. We look forward to sharing more details early in the new year.”
WPP’s next steps
Rose said her ambition for the company is to lead the industry in terms of innovation, client delivery and organic growth.
“However, I acknowledge that our recent performance is unacceptable and we are taking action to address this,” she said.
“We have amazing long-standing clients that represent the largest, most well-known brands in the world, strong capabilities and world-class talent that spans media, production and creative, some of the most consequential agency brands in the market, unrivalled global scale and reach, and market-leading technology and technology partnerships that give us a real competitive edge. This is an exciting platform to build on.
“To deliver performance improvements, we will position our offering to be much simpler, more integrated, powered by data and AI, efficiently priced and designed to deliver growth and business outcomes for our clients.
“We will significantly improve our execution, strengthening our go-to-market and dramatically simplifying how we organise ourselves internally, as well as building a high-performance team culture. We will expand our addressable market by pushing harder into enterprise and technology solutions.
“And finally, we will take a disciplined approach to capital allocation with a focus on cost efficiency and maintaining a strong balance sheet while prioritising the parts of our business where we can deliver the greatest shareholder value.”