Australia’s two largest supermarket chains, Woolworths and Coles, have again topped the list of the nation’s most distrusted brands.
Despite signs of stabilisation, both retailers remain at the top of the distrust rankings for a second consecutive quarter according to Roy Morgan’s latest survey covering the 12 months to March 2025.
Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, said there were “green shoots of recovery” for the supermarkets, though both face a long path to rebuild public confidence.
“The two major supermarkets have finally stabilised and stopped falling deeper into net distrust – but they both still have a long way to go to regain trust.”
Bunnings retained its position as Australia’s most trusted brand for the sixth consecutive quarter. It was followed by Aldi, Kmart, Apple and Toyota – all unchanged from the previous quarter.
However, Bunnings is also facing increasing scrutiny, with Roy Morgan reporting a steady rise in distrust since mid-2023. Ms Levine pointed to factors such as “concerns about the company’s size and market dominance, excessive profit motives and unaffordable price increases and dishonesty.”
Among the most trusted brands, JB Hi-Fi entered the top 10 in tenth position, and Big W rose to seventh. Commonwealth Bank made the most significant jump among trusted brands, rising four places to 12th. ING entered the top 20, in twentieth position.
Meanwhile, Tesla became the tenth most distrusted brand, entering the top 10 for the first time. Other highly distrusted brands included Optus (3rd), Facebook/Meta (4th), Qantas (5th), Telstra (6th), and Temu (7th).
Despite its high distrust ranking, Qantas was noted as showing “a near-consistent upward trend” in its recovery, while Optus was also seen to be regaining lost ground.
Roy Morgan’s research draws from a sample of 23,870 Australians aged 14 and over.
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