Ferrero ranked world's most reputable company

Ferrero edged home furnishing retailer IKEA and consumer brand Johnson & Johnson to take the top spot in the 2009 rankings, which collected survey data on 600 companies globally. Ferrero's Global Pulse score - a 0 to 100 reputation rating - rose from 83.52 in 2008 to 85.17 this year, bringing the company up from fourth place last year to top of the 2009 table.

"We consider this the ultimate honor, to be seen as the most reputable company in the world," said Giovanni Magnarello, Managing Director of Ferrero Trading ME.

"I think one of the reasons we have succeeded in building such a strong and reliable brand is that, even as we continue to grow our operations worldwide, we have been able to maintain the same business pillars: respect and care for the consumer, passion and commitment to our jobs, quality across the value chain - right from selection of ingredients through to production and distribution of the products in all markets."

he added.

"We have been privileged in offering our brands to discerning consumers throughout the Middle East region for the past several decades, in accordance with the high Ferrero standards," said Stefano F. Schieppati, Marketing Director of Ferrero Trading ME.

One of the largest confectionery groups in the world, Ferrero remains a true family-run success story. Founded in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero in the Italian town of Alba, the company has gone on to introduce many of the most celebrated confectionery brands in the world, including Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Chocolate, Nutella, and Tic Tac.

The Reputation Institute's Global Pulse is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of four indicators - trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling - obtained from a representative sample of at least 100 respondents in the companies' home countries.