Vodacom tops reputation survey

Johannesburg - Mobile telecommunications company Vodacom Group [JSE:VOD] has been judged to have the best reputation of South Africa's top 20 Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies, the Reputation Institute said on Wednesday.

The company scored 74.17 out of a possible 100 points in the 2013 RepTrak Pulse survey, which was a 6.64-point improvement on its performance last year, the institute said in a statement.

The survey measures companies' reputations by rating them on their products and services, innovation, performance, citizenship, workplace governance and leadership.

Old Mutual was ranked second highest, with an overall score of 69.94.

The institute's Africa partner Dominik Heil said Vodacom's holistic application of its business strategy was the possible reason for its success in the survey.

"This is apparent from Vodacom's consistent scores in all the reputation drivers."

The institute's manager for South Africa, Trevor Ndlazi, said that over the past five years innovation had become increasingly important for the country's businesses.

"South Africans want companies to innovate and respond to their specific needs. They are tired of companies 'recycling' goods and services."

He said Vodacom's score was markedly higher than other international telecommunications companies.

MTN, which came second in last year's survey, came fifth in the most recent survey. Telkom did not feature in the top 20 companies in this year's reputation survey. It was 17th last year.

The survey, which was conducted in January and February, collected over 3 000 ratings from economically active respondents in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. Almost all respondents had medium to high education levels.

Some large South African holding companies were excluded because the general public was not familiar with them

The top 20 companies were: Vodacom (74.17 points); Old Mutual (69.94); PicknPay (69.38); Sasol (69.05); MTN (68.93); Sanlam (68.89); Standard Bank (68.50); ABSA (66.22); Nedbank (65.42); Shoprite (64.01); SABMiller (59.97); Bidvest (59.38); Barloworld (53.55); Imperial Holdings (53.02); Anglo American (51.90); AngloGold Ashanti (50.41); BHP Billiton (49.90); British American Tobacco (48.98); Massmart (48.29); and Gold Fields (48.18).