These are South Africa's biggest brands 2026
Will this be the last year that MTN is the most valuable South African brand?
Every year, at around this time of Easter, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, publishes their carefully-considered list of South Africa's most valuable and strongest brands.
Kalidevi Mogan Kumarappa
Top 10 Most Valuable South African brands
Every year without fail, MTN is anointed as the country's most valuable at R50.9 billion (BTW - MTN is still only worth -50% less than what it was valued at in 2012, so just take that into context); followed by Vodacom.
This year however, Checkers and Shoprite are at #6 and #7...and the rest of the South African banks make up the Top 10.
One observation that we picked up on, is that the gap between MTN and the rest of the Top 10 used to be huge, but that gap has closed.
Here's a bold statement on reflection of this trend: 'Expect 2026 to be the last year that MTN is the country's most valuable brand'.
By all accounts (if they carry on as they are currently) Standard Bank will take that accolade (South Africa's most valuable brand) in 2027.
Top 10 Strongest South African brands
Other than balance sheet valuations there is also the list of strongest South African brands that are worth considering.
For clarity here, brands are given an index (BSI) that reflects the brand equity that they command in the marketplace.
This score reflects how much these brands have intentionally invested in their customer relationships, the brand experience that they offer as well as the integrity of their reputations.
Unsurprisingly Checkers is ranked #1 here, with cider brand, Savanna, being the only standalone product brand cracking the Top 10.
BTW - we're sure that if Nando's or Hollywood Bets were to be included in this survey, they would undoubtedly be included in the Top 10 most valuable and strongest lists.
The rising star?
An astounding brand value growth story is included in this year's report, courtesy of PEP.
PEP (brand value up 76% to R5.8 billion) ranks as 'South Africa’s fastest-growing brand in 2026'. Strong business performance underpins this growth, which is thanks to a radical acceleration of its cellular offering and a soon-to-be-established community-focused financial services platform.
The question that pops into our minds is: will PEP be the next Checkers?
Watch this space!
The 100 Most Valuable South African brands
It's always entertaining to sniff through the smaller details of the Brand Finance annual brand report. Some notable things to note: OROS (everyone's back-to-school favourite which is now 125 years old) slips into the Top 100 brands for the first time at #96.
More than 24 000 people follow OROS on Instagram. This OROS TikTok has been viewed 5.7 million times.
@oros_sa When the OROS ratio is 100:0. Your throat? Chaai 😵 #OROS #NoJudgement ♬ original sound - 🥴🤡 Cindy 👩🏻💼
But with a very strong visual identity and unmistakable brand assets, other brand builders could certainly learn a thing or two from OROS.
Moving on...
You might notice that insurance brands appear to have grow phenomenally over the past year: Vitality #45 up 77.4%, Metropolitan #87 grew their brand value by a whopping 57.6% and Guardrisk #61 (which we honestly needed to look up) is apparently a more valuable brand than Cell C #68. The reason for this is rather technical; the adjustment is because of a change in financial reporting for insurance companies, moving from IFRS 4 to IFRS 17. This shift has created once-off volatility for some insurance brands, which means that their valuations have transition accordingly.
Investec drops from #9 last year to #10 in 2026, and Woolworths slumps from #7 down to #11, but that seems to be because of overall brand value growth at the top of the table rather than the company having done anything wrong.
Brands that devalued the most in 2026 are: Multichoice -32.7%, and SPAR -38% - both of whom are plagued by significant managerial (shall we say) errors of judgment.
Brands as powerful assets
Under conditions of uncertainty, brands act as powerful system stabilisers. They function to fortify cyclical consumer demand and offer the strategic lever of margin against category competitors.
Brands are intangible assets that take decades to build, but they ensure the resilient operation of businesses despite headwinds. By considering South African brands on their financial value, rather than on measures that are considerably more subjective, its easier to see how effort and investment do have an impact.
South Africa's brand landscape still has a long way to go to benchmark more meaningfully with the rest of the world, but things are at least going in the right direction.
More marketing education is needed in local business schools and a proper pipeline of talent development is required to secure this ideal. There are still, frustratingly, far too many inexperienced juniors in charge of important brand accounts due to senior management's ignorance and incompetence.
Strategically the brand targets (listed in this report) are very clear. What's needed are eager, trained, creative, competent brand builders who are keen to carve out marketshare from their competitors.
Previously:
Jon Cherry
Jon Cherry
Jon Cherry