Tesco has been named the UK's most valuable retail brand

Tesco has been named the most valuable brand on the high street in a new study of UK retailers.

The supermarket giant's brand is valued at £8.6 billion this year, followed by Sainsbury's at £4.9 billion and Marks & Spencer at £3.9 billion, according to the research.

The report, by brand valuation agency Intangible Business, said Tesco's top ranking was "almost inevitable" following sales of £32 billion and its dominance in the supermarket and convenience store markets.

The report said 86% of the biggest brands on the high street originated in the UK, followed by the US with seven retailers and Germany and Sweden offering two chains.

Experts ranked 100 brands after looking at five years of public sales figures and scoring each retailer on measures including future growth, price positioning, customer service and brand heritage.

The value measures how much current owners could be expected to pay for each brand in the current market.

The report said falling sales and the increasing cost of debt pointed to a challenging year for UK retailers.

It predicted growth in sales of own-brand products as retailers tried to improve their margins and gain market share from established brands.

Among the worst performers were Woolworths, valued in the report at £297 million after falling sales, and Matalan, which suffered a drop in sales of 4% to just over £1 billion and a drop in its share of the UK clothing market from 5.7% to 5.1%.

The best performing brands were Aldi, whose UK sales have doubled to almost £2 billion since 2005, Primark, which increased its share of the UK clothing market by 2% to 10.1% over the previous year, and Specsavers, with a 30% market share.