M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has celebrated “the magic of M&S” as the retailer has been named the top brand in the UK for 2025 by YouGov.

The annual survey, which rates UK brands based on average customer impression, quality, value, reputation, satisfaction and recommended scores for the last 12 months, awarded the upmarket retailer with an overall index score of 53, with quality being its highest scoring category at 66.6.

Others in the list included Cadbury in fourth place with a score of 42.7, followed by Waitrose sister company John Lewis with 42.2. Meanwhile, Lindt came in at ninth with a 38.6 score and Yorkshire Tea took the last top 10 spot with 37.9.

Celebrating M&S’ achievement via LinkedIn today (30 January), Machin said: “At M&S, our vision is to be the most trusted retailer, doing the right thing for our customers, with quality products at the heart of everything we do.”

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It follows the retailer’s win in 2024, when it also received the title of UK’s best brand by YouGov.

Machin said that to have retained the top spot was “great news”, adding that “this is the magic of M&S and we must always protect it”.

However, he stated: “We’re only as good as our customers shopping with us tell us we are today. Trust can be lost so quickly – in one failed delivery, one poor experience in our stores, or one item being out of stock – which is why staying positively dissatisfied is so important.

“Thank you to our colleagues for your hard work in building this trust with our customers, and of course thank you to our customers for choosing to shop with M&S.”