Despite Maggi crisis, Nestle moves up in ranking: WPP

The Indian subsidiary of the world's largest food company Nestle appears to have withstood the shock of the Maggi crisis this year, according to the latest edition of BrandZ, an annual brand valuation study by WPP group agency Millward Brown.

Nestle has moved up a notch in the current edition, finding a place in the top-15 list of Indian brands, with a value of $1.4 billion, 22 per cent more than its value last year, the inaugural edition of the study. In 2014, Nestle was ranked 16th with a brand value of $1.22 billion.

Apart from this key induction, the BrandZ study was broadly consistent this year over last year, with HDFC Bank, Airtel, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank retaining their top four positions in the top 15 list, adding a total of $38.09 billion in terms of brand value.

Other members in the top 15 list include Asian Paints (5), Bajaj Auto (6), Hero (7), Axis Bank (8), Kotak Mahindra Bank (9), Maruti Suzuki (10), Idea (11), Castrol (12), IndusInd Bank (13) and McDowell's (14).

Together, these brands have added a total of $24.08 billion in terms of brand value to the top 15 list, Prasun Basu, MD, Millward Brown South Asia said, a significant increase over last year.

"From a top 50 point of view, Indian brands are now worth $92.2bn, up from just under $70bn last year. This value increase has been driven by brands' successful response to the rising sense of empowerment among Indian consumers, and the government's efforts to create a more conducive business environment," Basu said.

Brands in the financial sector (49 per cent growth) made the largest contribution to the overall increase in value in top 50, but significant lifts were also seen across most other sectors, indicating the broad strength of India's economy and Indian brands, Basu said. Home and personal care brands achieved a combined increase of 32 per cent, followed by the auto after-sales (28 per cent), core auto (27 per cent) and telecom providers (21 per cent), he said.