A new ranking solidifies what many Texans already believe — the reputation of San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B is as golden as some of the apples it sells.

In Merco’s inaugural ranking of companies and business leaders in Texas based on their reputation, H-E-B tops the list of companies, and H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt earns second place among business leaders. H-E-B CEO Howard Butt III claims the No. 8 spot on the list of leaders.

To come up with the Texas rankings, Merco, a company that monitors corporate reputation, interviewed 200 corporate leaders, 250 reputation experts, and more than 2,300 Texans. It also analyzed 738,000 social media mentions and evaluated more than 200 reputation indicators.

Two other San Antonio-based companies appear in the top 20 of the corporate ranking: financial services provider USAA and fast-food chain Whataburger.

Here’s the full list of the 20 companies in the Merco ranking:

• No. 1 — H-E-B, based in San Antonio
• No. 2 — Dell Technologies, based in Round Rock
• No. 3 — Toyota, whose North American headquarters is in Plano
• No. 4 — AT&T, based in Dallas
• No. 5 — Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas
• No. 6 — Apple, which has two corporate campuses in Austin
• No. 7 — Texas Instruments, based in Dallas
• No. 8 — Microsoft, which has offices in Austin, Houston, Irving, and San Antonio
• No. 9 — University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The center plans to open an Austin outpost in 2030
• No. 10 — Amazon, which has corporate hubs in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and owns Austin-based Whole Foods Market. It also operates data centers and warehouses throughout the state.
• No. 11 — Energy company ExxonMobil, based in Spring
• No. 12 — American Airlines, based in Fort Worth
• No. 13 — Warehouse club Costco, which operates business centers in Dallas and Stafford, and 44 stores throughout the state
• No. 14 — Tech behemoth Google, which maintains offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston
• No. 15 — Buc-ee’s, based in Lake Jackson. The company operates 36 convenience stores in Texas.
• No. 16 — Whole Foods Market, based in Austin. The grocery chain operates 36 stores in Texas
• No. 17 — Financial services provider USAA, based in San Antonio
• No. 18 — Software company Oracle, based in Austin
• No. 19 — Whataburger, based in San Antonio. The company operates more than 760 restaurants in Texas.
• No. 20 — Home improvement retailer Home Depot, which operates a tech hub in Austin and 189 stores across the state

Here’s the complete list of the top 10 corporate leaders in Merco’s ranking:

• No. 1 — Billionaire Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies
• No. 1 — Billionaire Charles Butt, chairman of San Antonio-based H-E-B
• No. 1 — Billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Austin-based automaker Tesla
• No. 1 — Billionaire Tim Cook, CEO of Cupertino, California-based tech giant Apple
• No. 1 — Billionaire Mark Cuban, co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., Magnolia Pictures, and AXS TV
• No. 1 — Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Seattle-based ecommerce giant Amazon
• No. 1 — Millionaire John Stankey, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based telecommunications company AT&T
• No. 1 — Millionaire Bob Jordan, vice chairman, president, and CEO of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines
• No. 1 — Billionaire Howard Butt III, CEO of San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B
• No. 1 — Millionaire Kendra Scott, executive chairwoman and CEO of jewelry retailer Kendra Scott

“Driving reputation means building trust with different stakeholders to boost business growth,” Jose Maria San Segundo, CEO of Merco, says in a news release. “American business leaders understand this well, as it is in the U.S. where the very concept of corporate reputation was developed.”