Fintech, Retail and Telecoms Dominate 2025 Brand Rankings

South Africa’s collective brand value of the top 10 brands (in South Africa) reached R699.6 billion in 2025. This is according to Brand Finance’s 2025 Top 100 brands report.

The report states that brand value was driven by the banking, retail and telecoms sectors. Together these sectors contribute over 62% of the total brand value in the rankings.

The top 10 most valuable brands in South Africa have a total brand value of R292.5 billion. Retaining first-place position is MTN with a brand value of R50.7 billion, despite economic volatility and inflationary and regulatory challenges in the Nigerian market.

Second and third place go to Vodacom (brand value of R43.9 billion) and Standard Bank (brand value of R37.8 billion) respectively. Following are FNB (brand value of R29.2 billion), Absa (brand value of R27.3 billion), Nedbank (brand value of R20.3 billion) and Investec (brand value of R20.1 billion).

Within the top 10 are retail brands Checkers (brand value of R23.5 billion) also ranked as the strongest brand in South Africa, Woolworths (brand value of R22.2 billion), and Shoprite (brand value of R20.1 billion).

Other notable entrants into the top 100 are retail giant Boxer, the Springboks and digital bank TymeBank ranked as the “brand to watch.

When it comes to individual brand recognition, Capitec was ranked the fastest growing brand and received 14^th place in the top 100.  

“The dominance of telecom, banking, and retail brands in brand value highlights their significant role in the lives of South African consumers. The growth of these brands shows that, despite intense competition, South African brands rank amongst the strongest globally, reflecting the high quality of the services and products they offer,” says the report.