British Airways has held off Apple, Microsoft and PayPal to be crowned the top business superbrand of 2017. Despite successive strikes making the headlines and unpredictable poll results disrupting the economy BA was ranked top in a survey of marketing experts and thousands of British business professionals.

The airline outperformed nearly 1,500 others in the sixteenth annual poll, with Apple retaining second spot and, in its strongest performance since 2011, US tech giant Microsoft moving up to third. Fellow US tech giants, PayPal and Google, both fell one place to fourth and fifth respectively. Despite this, American tech brands occupy four of the five top positions, confirming their stranglehold on the top of the table.

Stephen Cheliotis, Chief Executive of The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA), which compiled the results on behalf of Superbrands UK, said: “Despite a more turbulent period, British Airways has retained its position as the UK’s leading B2B brand for the third year running.

“Apple is once again a close contender in second, whilst rival Samsung retains 15th position despite the widely-publicised issues with its Galaxy handset. Unlike other recent polls, the voting pattern when it comes to brands remains remarkably consistent, with challenger brands notably absent as established players maintain their domination over newcomers.”

The official Top 20 Business Superbrands for 2017: 

1. British Airways
2. LEGO
3. Rolex
4. Andrex
5. Gillette
6. John Lewis
7. Mercedes-Benz
8. Kellogg’s
9.Apple
10. Coca-Cola
11. Dyson
12. Boots
13. Cadbury
14. Marks & Spencer
15. Jaguar
16. Fairy
17. Heinz
18. Google
19. Amazon.co.uk
20. Cancer Research UK