Optus has done what few brands want to do in public: it has pushed Woolworths off the bottom of Australia’s trust table. That matters because trust is not a soft metric any more; it now shapes switching, basket size and how much pain shoppers will tolerate after a failure.
For FMCG leaders, the signal is broader than one telco and one supermarket. The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor shows consumers are still rewarding dependable execution, while they punish service breakdowns long after the news cycle has moved on.
What Is the Roy Morgan Trust Monitor and Why It Matters for FMCG
The Roy Morgan Risk Monitor tracks which brands Australians trust and distrust, based on monthly surveys of 1,500 to 2,000 people. In practice, it gives retailers and suppliers a read on reputation risk before it shows up in sales data or trading terms.
That matters in grocery because trust sits underneath almost every commercial decision. If shoppers think a retailer is unreliable, overcharging or mishandling customer experience, they are more likely to split baskets, chase specials or trial a rival. For suppliers, that can translate into sharper promotional pressure, more volatile demand and less patience for product misses.
The latest result is also a reminder that trust does not move evenly across sectors. Supermarkets can improve without becoming loved, and technology brands can scale rapidly while still worrying consumers about privacy, ethics and profit motives.
Optus Replaces Woolworths at the Bottom of Australia’s Trust Rankings
Roy Morgan said Optus has replaced Woolworths as the most distrusted brand in Australia in the 12 months to March. Michele Levine, Roy Morgan’s chief executive, said it was the first time since September 2024 that Optus had returned to the position.
The shift follows the fatal Triple Zero outage in September last year, which continues to weigh on consumer sentiment. That is commercially important because it shows how a single operational failure can shape perception for well beyond the incident itself.
Woolworths and Coles both remained near the top of the distrust rankings, but the research said both improved from the previous quarter. At the same time, Bunnings held its place as Australia’s most trusted brand for a tenth consecutive quarter, ahead of Aldi and Kmart.
Here is the top-line picture from the latest report:
| Category | Latest position | Commercial read-through |
|---|---|---|
| Most distrusted brand | Optus | Service failures can dominate perception for months |
| Most trusted brand | Bunnings | Consistency still wins in a cautious market |
| Supermarket operators | Woolworths and Coles improved | Trust can recover, but slowly |
| AI companies | OpenAI entered top 20 most distrusted | Scale is outrunning consumer confidence |
How the Trust Data Reads in a Grocery Context
I read this report as a reminder that trust behaves a bit like shelf space. Once a brand loses it, winning it back usually costs more than keeping it in the first place. That is especially true in supermarket retail, where every shopper has alternatives within a few minutes’ drive or a few taps on a phone.
The report also suggests that distress can spread differently by category. Telecoms sit at the bottom of the industry rankings, while retail remains the most trusted sector. Banking and supermarket operators recorded gains in trust over the past nine months, which matters because consumers still appear willing to reward sectors that deliver predictable service and fair value.
Roy Morgan also flagged a rise in distrust toward AI companies. OpenAI, including ChatGPT, fell seven places to 19th on the most distrusted list, while Google slipped to 15th and Nvidia also recorded higher distrust, linked to concerns about ethics and anti-competitive behaviour.
What This Does Not Change for Supermarkets and Suppliers
This does not mean Woolworths has suddenly become a damaged brand in a sales sense, or that Optus will lose shoppers overnight. Trust and trading are related, but they do not move at the same speed. A brand can stay commercially powerful while sitting under reputational pressure.
It also does not tell us how much distrust is driving basket behaviour versus simply reflecting media coverage. The monitor is a sentiment measure, not a sales ledger. For suppliers, the limitation is clear: it is a warning signal, not a forecast of volume.
Even so, the direction matters because large retailers and national brands cannot separate operational performance from reputation for long.
Woolworths, Coles and other supermarket suppliers will care most about where this lands in the next quarterly read, because trust gains can support negotiation strength, while distrust can make every promotion, pricing move and service issue harder to defend. The same applies to telcos and technology companies that rely on habitual use and low-friction switching.
Why This Trust Shift Matters More Than the Rankings Suggest
The deeper story is that Australian consumers are becoming less forgiving of service failure and more sceptical of companies that feel opaque. That is why a supermarket, a telco and an AI platform can all end up in the same conversation about trust, even if their business models are wildly different.
For FMCG executives, the commercial lesson is straightforward. Trust now acts like a tax on weak execution and a dividend on consistency, and the brands that keep paying attention to it will have the cleaner runway as shoppers stay selective.
If you manage a grocery brand, a retail account or a consumer-facing supply chain, I would treat this as a prompt to review how your own trust signals show up in store, online and in customer service, because the next ranking shift will not wait for a convenient time.