WPP turnover soars except in UK market

WPP Group’s specialist communications consultancies – including Coley Porter Bell, BDG McColl and the renamed Sampson Tyrrell Enterprise – were again collectively the group’s best performers in its quarterly figures.

The consultancies’ 11 per cent hike in revenue in the third quarter of 1995 and a strong showing in the 1995 whole year figures are followed by a 13 per cent like-for- like surge in revenue for the first three months of 1996.

However, most of the growth came from almost all of WPP’s global markets except the UK, where revenue growth was just 1.9 per cent. WPP’s results statement claims: “The UK slowed from the unsustainably high levels of growth experienced in the first quarter last year.”

Overall, the group saw revenue rise from 343.9m in the first quarter of 1995 to 390.4m for the same period this year. The healthy figures are helping the balance sheet. Net debt averages 154m compared to 204m last year.