Air NZ pips NZ Post on reputation

New Zealand companies have been ranked in a corporate reputation survey, with Air New Zealand flying highest.

A New Zealand survey done with a local research consultancy put Air New Zealand ahead of New Zealand Post. Dairy multinational Fonterra Cooperative took 20th place

The study was based on companies with the most revenue, with the corporate reputation index measuring how 1119 New Zealanders aged 18-64 scored them.

Fisher and Paykel ranked third, after being included in the index for the first time, while another first-time contender, Exxon Mobil NZ received the lowest ranking, behind Telecom NZ.

Another newcomer, Vodafone, scored better, at 15.

But perceptions of a "big box" retailer, The Warehouse fell, particularly in terms of its leadership, where its performance fell from first last year to seventh, to give it an overall ranking at sixth place.

In last year's ranking of 20 companies, Fonterra rated at 10th. Survey organisers suggested this year's slump in perceptions of Fonterra's workplace and governance performance "is most likely the result of the milk powder scandal".

Fonterra had a 43 percent stake in China's leading seller of milkpowder, Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group, which disclosed in 2008 that it had been selling milkpowder for children which had been adulterated with a chemical, melamine.

At least 22 companies were found to be selling contaminated milk, but the highest levels of melamine were found in Sanlu milk, and at least six children were killed and more than 300,000 were made sick.

The rankings were:

1 Air New Zealand

2 New Zealand Post

3 Fisher & Paykel

4 ASB

5 HJ Heinz

6 The Warehouse

7 Goodman Fielder

8 Foodstuffs

9 Shell NZ (now trading as Z)

10 Zespri

11 Fletcher Building

12 Harvey Norman

13 Fulton Hogan

14 Sky Network Television

15 Vodafone

16 BNZ

17 Woolworths/Progressive Enterprises

18 ANZ Bank

19 Westpac

20 Fonterra Co-operative

21 SkyCity

22 Chevron NZ

23 BP New Zealand

24 Telecom NZ

25 Exxon Mobil