Brand reputations: Tim Hortons slips as MEC, Jean Coutu, Canadian Tire lead

A number of Canadian retailers have seen their reputations improve sharply this year, while a well known coffee and doughnut chain declined, according to an annual ranking published Wednesday.

For the second year in a row, Mountain Equipment Co-op has topped the list of Canadian companies with the best reputations, compiled by market research firm The ReputationInstitute.

MECsat atop the annual ranking,followed by Jean CoutuGroup, Canadian Tire, Pharmaplus/Shoppers Drug Mart and Home Hardware.

Coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortonssaw its ranking fall to 14th place among Canadian companies. Last year, the chain was ranked third among the Canadian names.

It has been a rough year for the restaurant chain.

The company spent much of the yearsquabbling with franchiseesover cost increases and other issues, and that was before the company's reputation took a nosedive afterCBCNews first reported thata number of franchisees were cutting back on employee perks and working hoursfollowing minimum wage hikes.

To come up with the rankings, the company surveyed 27,000 Canadians online for their views on more than 250 companies, and rank them based on their reputations in January and February of 2018.

Participants are described by the research firm as members of the "informed general public" meaning they are Canadians who were somewhat familiar or very familiar with the companies evaluated.

As such, it isn't a random sample and doesn't have the same sort of margin of error that, for example, a standard political poll might have.

MECgot a score of 79.5, followed byJeanCoutuGroup at 78.5, Canadian Tire at 76.9,Pharmaplus/Shoppers Drug Mart at 75.5and Home Hardware at 75.4.

Tim Hortonsscored a71 six points lower than it scored a year ago.

The rankings looked at Canadian companies, but also foreign-based companies that operate here. By that metric, the three atop the list were Google, Rolex and Lego, which all scored over 80.

Canadian names followed after that, with nine placing in the top 50 overall, includingCascades (74.3), Cineplex (74.2), Roots (73.8)and Sleep Country Canada (73.4).

When international companies are included, Tim Hortonsscore of 71 dropped it to 67th place. Last year it was 13thby that metric.

The study comes after similar rankings were released in April by research organization Leger, which ranked Tim Hortons in 50th spot, down from fourth place.