Well-loved bakery and confectionery brands failed to make it into an annual ranking of the top 20 consumer brands in the UK, but Hovis won its category. 

Cadbury and Marks & Spencer (M&S), which both held a spot last year, lost out in the 2015 list in the research carried out by The Centre for Brand Analysis, to other brands including British Airways, Rolex and the BBC, which make the top three. Speculators in part blame the controversy around this year’s recipe change for the chocolate of a Creme Egg for Cadbury’s fall from the list.

Other British favourites to be knocked out include baked beans firms Heinz, electronics firm Sony, online retailer Amazon and oil giant Shell. It is the first time since 2009 that M&S has not made it onto the list. Just the top 20 brands are listed in number order with brand category winners announced, where bakery did have some joy.

Bread giant Hovis came top in the Food – Bakery category, beating rival qualifying brands Warburtons, Allinson, Kingsmill, Mr Kipling and Ryvita, which all qualified as superbrands in the bakery category.

Cadbury triumphed in the Confectionery & Snacks category; Costa came top of Restaurants & Coffee Shops entries; and Sainsbury’s scooped top gong for Retail – Food & Drink.

Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of The Centre for Brands Analysis and chairman of the Superbrands Council, said the results of the poll were surprising in that they left newer brands out while traditional brands continued to resonate with consumers.

The list was collated after polling 2,500 British adults, who each ranked their favourites of 1,500 popular brands.

The top 20 are:
1. British Airways
2. Rolex
3. BBC
4. Microsoft
5. Nike
6. John Lewis
7. Gillette
8. Mercedes-Benz
9. Kellogg’s
10. Apple
11. LEGO
12. Andrex
13. Boots
14. Dyson
15. Coca-Cola
16. Fairy
17. BMW
18. Google
19. Haagen-Dazs
20. Virgin Atlantic