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The Rana Plaza building collapse was one of the deadliest industrial accidents in history leading to the deaths of more than 1,100 workers with a further 2,500 injured. Garments for more than twenty well-known fashion brands were manufactured in the ill-fated building. Fashion companies have a social responsibility throughout the supply chain and the accident at Rana Plaza highlights operations outside of expected social norms and so poses a reputational risk. We develop propositions based on the corporate reputation literature to explore why Rana Plaza posed a reputational risk while previous incidents at garment factories in Bangladesh did not. We explore company reputational effects and subsequent response in this multi-company crisis. We find that if incidents in remote regions of the world are not reported in the print media then they are unlikely to pose a risk to company reputation. We also find that …