British companies show disappointing results without a presence in the Global RepTrak 100 top 10. Rolls-Royce Aerospace is the top performing UK company, only making 17th place, while Virgin Group showed the biggest decline, year-on-year, having fallen five spots.

Reputation Institute (RI), provider of stakeholder measurement, membership and management services, has announced the company’s annual Global RepTrak 100 rankings and the results are discouraging.

More than half of companies previously featured on the RepTrak 100 list have considerably dropped in rankings showing a weakening in reputation. This highlights the level of competitiveness in the industries and subsequently the struggle to maintain customer base and invite investors.

Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, executive partner and chief research officer for Reputation Institute, says, “The reputation bubble has burst. Companies are down by an average of 1.4 points globally, representing the first major decline since the end of the Great Recession.”

Rolex tops the list this year, a company that along with Canon, Sony and Adidas, which came in fourth, sixth and seventh place respectively, didn’t make it to the top 10 last year. Google is the only company that maintained its place, while the rest of the companies have dropped at an alarming rate.

Swift changes in certain industries have also been noted. Technology replaced automotive as the third most prevalent industry, after consumer, food and beverage. The categories that performed the worst are hospitality (-16), transportation (-13), and airlines (-12).

UK companies in the Global RepTrak 100 performed best in the products & services (21.6%), governance (16.1%) and citizenship (14.4%) categories, whereas workplace scored only 10.9%.

James Bickford, managing director of the Reputation Institute, says, “UK companies need to wake up if they want to compete in the global market. Brexit is a harsh reality that they need to prepare for, and with Theresa May currently in discussions on trade agreements, CEOs need to work on their business’ reputations if they are to meet the standards of the global community.”

Surprisingly, Fortune Magazine’s ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ holds no similarities with Reputation Institute’s ‘Most Reputable Companies’ with no company appearing in both.

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