Retail giant, The Warehouse, has fallen one place to rank fourth in this year’s NZ Corporate Reputation Index, the country’s longest running corporate reputation survey.

Produced for the past seven years by research consultancy AMR in conjunction with the Reputation Institute, the index measures how New Zealanders view the nation’s top 25 companies across seven reputation drivers and then ranks them according to people’s overall emotional reaction using over 6,000 ratings. It is part of a global study conducted each year and uses a method validated by a database of more than three million ratings.

The reputational strength of both Air New Zealand and Toyota continues, with the latest NZ Corporate Reputation Index results ranking them 1st and 2nd respectively, the fourth year running the organisations have been in the top 2.

The latest Index shows Air New Zealand taking line honours for the second year in a row; the carrier ranked 2nd in 2015. It also ranked first in the Australian Corporate Reputation Index, also released this week. Its reputation has seen it rank highly since the Corporate Reputation Index was established in NZ, ranking third in 2013 and first in 2011 and 2012.

Toyota has also continued its impressive streak of overall reputational rankings, coming in 2nd for the second year in a row. It ranked first in 2015 and 2013, and again second in 2014.

“It appears that Air New Zealand currently has no ‘weak spots’ in its reputation,” said Oliver Freedman, MD, AMR. “It rates in the excellent category across the board which shows it has found a way to engage with New Zealand consumers, but also get a clear and consistent message out there through its marketing activities.”

Freedman said overall reputation scores were up across the board in this year’s NZ index, demonstrating that New Zealanders had higher levels of admiration, trust and respect for companies than ever before.

Fonterra Cooperative has also improved its reputation, following a steep decline in 2016. Freedman said its improved position could be attributed to increases across all the individual dimensions, but particularly Citizenship and Performance.

“This result shows that while a negative and public issue can see overall reputation decline, consistent commitment to rebuilding trust among consumers can rebuild positive perceptions. Their overall reputation is now at its best since tracking began in NZ,” said Freedman.