What’s gone wrong at WPP? The crown slips at the world’s biggest advertising group

Exodus of big clients, falling profits and dire forecasts raise prospect of a once ‘unthinkable’ breakup

A dark joke is doing the rounds in adland that Wire and Plastic Products, the Kent-based basketmaker that Martin Sorrell bought 40 years ago as a vehicle to build a global advertising giant, might outlast WPP.

For decades the financial success and dominance of WPP – its 100,000 employees service global clients from Ford to Coca-Cola – has been the corporate manifestation of Britain’s shining reputation for creative advertising.