Tesco beats Asda to top spot in reputation table

Tesco’s reputation is riding high, according to the monthly issue of Reputation Monitor, as the supermarket giant moved from second place in October to first in November’s top ten.

Compiled by Thomson Intermedia, the chart analyses coverage in the business and financial press and awards a score based on its National News Index.

Coverage of Tesco’s purchase of a Turkish supermarket chain, plus a business award for chief executive Terry Leahy scored highly.

The chain announced further distance between itself and its rivals with another sharp rise in sales earlier this week.

Sales rose 6.9 per cent in the 14 weeks to mid-November, beating analysts’ forecasts, and compared with flat sales growth from rivals Sainsbury’s and Safeway. Tesco said the rise partly reflected strong growth in non-food sales.

Asda was placed second in the chart. Coverage of its move into life cover gained positive placements, as did the stories about the company boasting the best management in the sector.

Asda is to offer its 11 million weekly shoppers the chance to buy life and mortgage insurance along with their groceries.

Both Tesco and Asda widened the gap between themselves and their rival Sainsbury’s after the latter’s acrimonious split with fashion designer Jeff Banks.

His exit has called into question the success of the ongoing recovery at Sainsbury’s.

Meanwhile, the rise in interest rates plunged the Bank of England to the foot of the bottom ten.

The Bank’s quarter point rise to 3.75 per cent and the threat of further increases resulted in mass negative national media coverage.

Further stories about the spectre of a debt crisis for UK consumers dominated the press for several days afterwards.

Embattled Enron was second from bottom of the table.

REPUTATION MONITOR

*Excludes market reports and passing mentions. Source: Thomson Intermedia

1 Tesco 353.3 NNIs*

2 Asda 226.9

3 Ryl Bk of Scotland 203.6

4 Nationwide 202.9

5 Wm Morrison 183.9

6 Safeway 171.7

7 Arcadia Group 144.3

8 Boeing 136.4

9 Deutsche Bank 134.8

10 Amicus 132.6