Rod flies high in the chief exec league

THEIR staff may fear them as some of the biggest cost-cutters in British industry but if a chief executive can deliver a business turnaround story to the media, he will still make it to the top of the 'favourability poll'.

That is the trend which emerges from the second annual 'chief executive brand value report' examining Press coverage of the FTSE 100 chiefs and conducted by financial spin doctors Citigate Dewe Rogerson.

British Airways boss Rod Eddington reigns supreme. Even though he has slashed 13,000 staff since 9/11, Press reports have been kind to him with the City expecting the airline to return to high profits this year despite his admission that it will 'never return to the halcyon days of the mid-Nineties'.

Prudential boss Jonathan Bloomer picked up the wooden spoon, scoring a stunning minus 108 in Citigate's index after springing a £1bn rights issue on the City last October. Sainsbury's new broom Justin King clinched second place for popularity, with Press reports so far buying his promises of a turnaround in the supermarket's fortunes.

New Marks & Spencer chief Stuart Rose, who reckons he can bring 'the business back to regain some of its former glory', makes the Citigate top 10 along with Boots boss Richard Baker, who promises a return to 'retailing basics'.

King's rating of plus 336 compares with one of minus 20 for his predecessor Sir Peter Davis, who was panned for a bungled £3bn investment in the grocery chain's stocking system that left it short of basic food supplies on the shelves.

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