Credit: Joey Huang via Unsplash
The Australian operations of WPP, despite an almost 9% lift in revenue from its media unit, posted an after tax loss of $65.43 million in 2024, a contrast to the $11.577 million profit the year before.
The company said the loss was largely driven by impairment expenses of $87.85 million, up from $29.4 million the year before.
WPP AUNZ Pty Limited, the local outpost of the UK-based company, recorded top line revenue of $769.08 million, down from $772.68 million, according to filings with corporate regulator ASIC.
Income tax expense came in at $6.3 million, up from $1.09 million the year before.
The biggest expense in 2024 was employees at $404.14 million. The pay for “key management personnel” totalled $11.056 million, down slightly from $11.59 million the year before.
The filings didn’t record top earners at WPP, nor how many shared the special key management pay.
The annual accounts are signed by Rosemary Herceg, WPP president, Australian and New Zealand, and Tim Matheson, executive director.
Occupancy costs, perhaps from lower rent due to working from home, fell to $9.87 million from $11.59 million.
This may increase in 2025 with a new global WPP policy requiring staff in the office four days a week.
The stand out earner in 2024 for Australia was media, now called WPP Media, with revenue of $407.99 million, up almost 9% from $361.32 million the year before.
In Australia, the then GroupM topped the RECMA rankings for 2024. Account wins include Lion, Specsavers, Amazon, Nova and Footlocker. Retentions include Queensland Government.
Public relations also increased its revenue at $36.69 million, up from $35.419 million.
The line for "advertising" was $251.77 million, down from 275.93 million
WPP globally is going through a restructure, and has been under pressure with revenue in negative territory, a weak share price and pushback from staff on the back to the office mandate.
In 2025, WPP's Australia business reported negative growth in the March quarter of -0.7%, according to the global advertising group’s presentation in April to market analysts.
The number was better than the overall 2.7% dip in the global business and compares to a drop of -5.5% in the UK.
The -0.7% like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs for Australia is also a better result than the -1.7% drop for the December quarter.
The breakdown of revenue in 2024 for WPP AUNZ:
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