WPP back on track says CEO Rose

WPP did rather better than expected in the first half of 2026 with revenue of £6,373m down 4.4% on a reported basis and down 3.2% like-for-like (LFL), while revenue less pass-through costs of £4,745m decreased 4.7% LFL. Q2 revenue less pass-through costs of £2,485m was down 2.3% on a reported basis and 2.8% LFL. Falls of up to 6.7% had been expected.

Performance in the quarter benefited from an improvement at WPP Media compared to the first quarter, as well as the impact of easing comparisons. H1 reported operating profit margin was 4.1% and headline operating profit margin was 8.4%, representing a LFL increase of 0.2pt, helped by lower headline severance YoY and cost savings.

CEO Cindy Rose (above) says: “I am encouraged by our first-half performance which is in line with our expectations. While legacy account losses continue to weigh, Q2 saw a further sequential improvement in LFL growth, highlighting the momentum we are building across the company and demonstrating that our strategy to become the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands is beginning to deliver.

“We are firmly on track with Phase 1 of our Elevate28 plan to stabilise the business. Our objective for the first half was to put in place the building blocks of the new organisational structure and this is now complete. We are successfully transitioning from a complex holding company to a single, integrated company – with four operating units across four regions, all underpinned by WPP Open, our agentic marketing platform, which enables and connects everything we do.

“Organic growth remains our North Star. While the turnaround of our financial performance will take time to fully flow through, our strong new business wins and improved client retention, as well as progress on cost savings and portfolio actions, demonstrate that we are building a simpler, more competitive and higher-performing WPP.” WPP lost another 1200 job in the year.

Update

WPP shares soared over 23% in early trading, matching the year’s high and pushing its valuation over £4bn. The company isn’t out of the woods yet but at this rate Rose will land her generous bonus deal with something to spare.