WPP saw its revenue fall by more than six per cent in the first three months of 2026, piling pressure on the advertising giant’s turnaround plan just two months after it was unveiled. The FTSE 250 holding group reported a 6.6 per cent drop in sales to £3bn in the first quarter, while revenue less pass-through costs—a key metric for professional services firms that excludes costs incurred on behalf of clients—fell by more than eight per cent.
CEO Expresses Encouragement Despite Decline
New chief executive Cindy Rose said she was “encouraged by [the] momentum” the firm was showing two months after she unveiled the holding company’s comprehensive turnaround plan, dubbed Elevate 28. “While it is only a few months since we unveiled our Elevate28 strategy, I am encouraged by this momentum which validates the ‘Stabilisation’ phase of the plan and our path to growth,” she said. “Consistent organic growth remains our North Star. While it will take time to outpace historical losses, our Q1 results are in line with expectations and ahead of Q4 2025.”
Cost Savings and Asset Disposals
In the overhaul announced in February, Rose announced plans to make £500m of cost savings by the end of 2028. The balance sheet simplification would be achieved through a combination of eliminating duplication, staff cuts, and simplifying its portfolio of agencies. Since then, it has emerged that WPP has appointed investment bankers to explore the sale of its premier public relations agency, Burson, which was only formed in 2024 when it merged Burson Cohn & Wolfe with its PR stablemate Hill & Knowlton. Rose has vowed to reinvest the proceeds from the cost saving programme into growth avenues, chief among which is its fledgling artificial intelligence platform, WPP Open.
In its trading update on Tuesday, the group said it “continued to make progress on potential asset disposals and will provide updates in due course”.
Long-Term Underperformance
The turnaround plan comes after years of underperformance from the advertising giant, which last year dropped out of the FTSE 100 index despite being one of its largest companies less than 10 years ago. The rise of artificial intelligence and big technology firms’ increasingly firm grip on the media buying industry has spawned several years of flat performance, culminating in the company losing its crown as the world’s largest holding group to France’s Publicis.
