Woolworths has raced ahead of its rival Coles in the brand value stakes, according to a valuation of the world’s top brands.

The supermarket’s brand is now worth more than $10 billion, a first for an Australian company.

Australia has just eight in the global top 500 brands with Woolworths valued at $10.823 billion in first place on the local scale.

The annual Brand Finance Global 500 ranks the supermarket at 109 in the world, an improvement from 113 the year before.

The brand value of Coles was just $6.35 billion and it dropped in rankings to 196 this year from 179 a year ago.

Coles came in fourth in Australia behind Telstra, which ranked at 140 globally with a brand value of $8.3 billion, and BHP at 185th and valued at $6.58 billion.

The top Australian brands are dominated by banks, a resources giant, telecommunications companies and supermarkets.

Telstra has shown the largest growth of any Australian brand with a 37% jump.

Brand Finance says:

“At a global level, Telstra has become one of the top 20 most valuable telecoms brands for the first time. The operator has retained its advantage in network coverage over Optus and continues to leverage its brand effectively through its triple-play and broadband offering. A 9.2% growth in profits has led to an increased dividend this year for the first time since 2006.”

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