WPP says US tariffs yet to hit client spending despite sales fall

Marketing giant WPP said it has not yet seen a “significant change” in spending from clients due to new US tariff rules as it reported a slump in sales.

The FTSE 100 company told shareholders it is making “progress” despite a “challenging” wider economic backdrop.

Mark Read, chief executive officer of the firm, said the company was keeping its trading targets despite the potential for higher tariffs to affect its clients.

He said: “While WPP is not itself directly affected by tariffs, they will impact a number of our clients as well as the broader economy.

“At this point we have not seen any significant change in client spending and we reiterate our full-year guidance which already reflected a challenging environment.

“As ever, we remain agile and vigilant and will continue to be disciplined on how we are managing our cost base.”

It came as WPP reported that revenues dropped by 5% to £3.24 billion for the first quarter of 2025, compared with a year earlier.

Meanwhile, like-for-like revenue, once accounting for pass-through costs, was down 2.7% for the quarter. Analysts had predicted a 2.5% fall.

The company said it expects this like-for-like drop to become shallower through the rest of the year despite “elevated macro uncertainty” for the near term.

Bosses said they have seen “renewed momentum” in the firm’s VML and Burson operations, winning contracts with Generali, Heineken and Levi Strauss & Co over the latest quarter.

Shares in the business were up 0.7% on Friday morning.