WPP’s Rose unveils survival strategy

New WPP CEO Cindy Rose (left) has revealed her eagarly-awaited strategy – Elevate28 – for the struggling ad company and it has three planned phases:

*Stabilise (2026) to secure new business and reduce costs;
*Build (2027) to embed a transformed operating model and return to organic growth;
*Accelerate (2028+) to become a fully AI-enabled, high-margin partner.

At the same time WPP has unveiled some pretty grisly numbers in its 2025 full year results. 2025 revenue was £13,550m, down 8.1% on a reported basis and down 3.6% like-for-like (LFL), with revenue less pass-through costs of £10,176m down 5.4% LFL.

Q4 LFL revenue less pass-through costs of £2,691m was down 10.1% reported and 6.9% LFL. 2025 reported operating profit margin was 2.8% and headline operating profit margin was 13.0%, representing a small decrease. Adjusted operating cash flow before working capital was £1,189m, in line with latest guidance and year-end average adjusted net debt was £3.4bn.

The last figure is the one that will really worry Rose and WPP shareholders. Debt is still high at £3.4bn despite a number of disposals and way more than the company’s current market value.

Rose says she wants a media-led integrated company, not an old-fashioned ad holding company and is looking for £500m in cost savings. These will likely mainly come from job cuts with a revival of organic growth the preferred way to stabilise things. It’s not a bad start by Rose but will it be enough?

Update

Investors were unimpressed in early trading, marking down WPP’s shares by 6%. It’s hard from here to see what else Rose can do, bar, perhaps, a rights issue. But would shareholders stump up? WPP is now well and truly in play with bargain hunters bound to be interested. The problem, as before, is all that debt.