Ranked: Sports Direct tops poll of UK’s most loathed brands
House of Fraser owner Sports Direct is the UK’s most loathed brand, according to consumer finance website Money Saving Expert.
However, billionaire Mike Ashley's bottom-placed retail giant may have been hurt by a social media campaign against the company, admitted the website, which asked 7,600 readers to rank 52 household name brands.
Read more: Mike Ashley to turn House of Fraser into 'Harrods of the high street'
Its newly acquired department store also performed poorly, with House of Fraser ranked as the UK's fourth worst company in the survey, after only placing 31st in Money Saving Expert's last poll conducted in 2016.
Ashley bought the department store hours after it went into administration back in August. While the deal looks set to secure jobs, Sports Direct has closed a number of House of Fraser stores and got into arguments about pay with suppliers, leading to House of Fraser cancelling customers' online orders.
"We don't believe this poll is a true reflection of customer opinion," said a spokesperson for Sports Direct. "By contrast, Sports Direct was listed as number one in a top ten of the most improved global brands published by the YouGov BrandIndex earlier this year."
House of Fraser said it was “surprised by this poll” and highlighted that it had received positive feedback from customers since it was brought under new ownership.
| Most loved brands | Most loathed brands |
| 1. Aldi | 1. Sport Direct |
| 2. Amazon | 2. Apple |
| 3. John Lewis | 3. Currys/PC World |
| 4. M&S | 4. House of Fraser |
| 5. Lidl | 5. Primark |
| 6. Ikea | 6. Amazon |
| 7. Home Bargains | 7. WH Smith |
| 8. eBay | 8. Tesco |
| 9. Waitrose | 9. Asda |
| 10. Wilko | 10. Debenhams |
Meanwhile, budget supermarket Aldi topped the survey as it continued to eat away at the big four supermarkets’ market share, resulting in last week’s announcement of a 16 per cent rise in sales to a record £10.2bn in 2017.
Read more: Aldi and Lidl eat into Tesco and Sainsbury's market share
Amazon, the second-most loved brand according to the survey, has managed to remain popular with some despite ongoing criticism of its tax affairs, though it also ranked sixth on consumers' list of least-liked companies.
Meanwhile, British department store stalwart John Lewis was ranked as the UK's third favourite brand, despite reporting a 99 per cent drop in half-year profits last month.
The department store blamed the profit drop on discount pricing by competitors, which forces John Lewis to price match due to its “never knowingly undersold” policy.
Dixons Carphone, which includes Currys and PC World, said that its independent online sites and surveys paint a different picture, with customers valuing its pricing and range of products.