South Africa’s most reputable companies in 2015

Retail giant Woolworths has emerged as the company with the best reputation among South Africa’s largest companies in 2015.

According to the 2015 RepTrak Pulse reputation survey conducted by Reputation House, a representative of the internationally based Reputation Institute, Woolworths’ scored 71.2 points out of a possible 100.

The retailer retained its position from 2014, having overtaken mobile operator, Vodacom, as the company with the strongest reputation.

Reputation Institute’s (RI) National RepTrak Pulse survey ranks the largest listed companies by revenue and familiarity.

Pick n Pay and Shoprite scored 70.8 and 69.0 respectively, coming in second and third, while MTN and Mr Price rounded out the top five companies.

The 2015 edition of the RepTrak Pulse study measured the reputation of 30 well-known companies, included among these are the ten largest listed South African companies based on revenue.

Companies that are not easily recognisable by the general public, as well as those that are wholly owned subsidiaries of other companies were excluded, Reputation House said.

The scores of the 30 companies surveyed in the 2015:

12 new companies featured on this list in 2015, from the 2014 ranking.

The top 10 from 2014 versus 2015:

Reputation 2014 vs 2015

From a reputation point of view, Capitec Bank is becoming a serious contender in the banking sector. “We have a newcomer that is no longer seen as an outsider but from a reputation perspective is now playing in the big league”, said Dr Dominik Heil, chairman of the Reputation House.

“While there is an increase in the average reputation of the South African companies, we are seeing a similar picture that we typically see when there is a crisis and uncertainty in an economy,” said Dr Heil.

“The fact that people are under a lot of pressure economically and given the lack of visible leadership in the public and private sector, people’s attention has shifted towards basics such as pricing, quality of products and value for money.”

The 2015 RepTrak®Pulse was conducted in May and June 2015. 10,547 people between the ages of 18 and 64 from economically active segments of the public i.e. with an LSM of 6+, were surveyed.

At least 300 respondents were interviewed about each company included in the survey.

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