Companies in Chattanooga: the major employers, five public headquarters and 12,621 businesses

This page is for people looking for companies in Chattanooga: job seekers, companies relocating or looking for local suppliers, researchers, and B2B sellers sizing up the area. It covers the major employers first, then the public companies based there, then the full business market from Census data and the records that let you check any business.

Chattanooga's major employers

The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce publishes a Major Employers List of employers with 100 or more full-time employees, in descending order. The 2026 edition gives employment as of December 31, 2025:

Pilgrim's Pride, Kenco Group, EPB, U.S. Xpress and Humanist Hospitality follow. The Chamber says the figures are self-reported by employers, the list isn't a complete inventory and it shouldn't be used for statistical purposes, so an employer missing from it may simply not have responded.

Public companies headquartered in Chattanooga

Five SEC-registered companies with meaningful revenue have their principal executive offices in the metro, according to their latest 10-Ks:

All five have calendar fiscal years. Unum's revenue includes premium income and investment income; Colonial Life, one of its segments, brought in 17.0% of its premium income in 2025. Unum, Astec and CBL also appear on the Chamber list with their local full-time headcounts: 3,219, 1,689 and 241.

How many businesses are in Chattanooga

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts business locations with paid employees. For the Chattanooga, TN-GA Metro Area (CBSA 16860) in 2023:

In bands: 10,371 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 1,898 with 20 to 99 and 352 with 100 or more.

A manufacturing and freight economy

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. Manufacturing has only 535 establishments but employs 15.5% of the metro's workers and pays 17.9% of its payroll, as much as health care. Transportation and warehousing sites average 39 employees, and the metro is home to trucking companies including Covenant Logistics and U.S. Xpress, which is on the Chamber list with 747 full-time staff. CBP counts locations rather than companies, excludes the self-employed and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023. For the statewide picture, see companies in Tennessee.

Finding and checking Chattanooga companies

To vet a local supplier, check its Tennessee (or Georgia) registration, any license its trade needs, and two references from companies your size. The Chamber list is a good starting point for a target list of large employers, with the caveat that it's self-reported.

Prospecting Chattanooga companies

The Chattanooga market rewards specialists. With 535 manufacturing establishments averaging about 71 employees, plant managers and maintenance leads are a reachable, concentrated audience, and the trucking and logistics firms behind 15,478 transportation jobs buy equipment, fuel, insurance and recruiting at scale. The large employers at the top of the Chamber list, by contrast, are mostly health systems, government and utilities that buy through formal procurement.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional, to show the method.

Lookout Industrial Services (lookoutind.example) does preventive maintenance on plant equipment and wants Hamilton County manufacturers.

• Metro manufacturing establishments: 535, averaging 70.7 employees.
• Hamilton County has 78.3% of all metro establishments, so Lookout estimates about 420 plants there.
• It wants sites with a maintenance team to support rather than replace, which it assumes means 50 or more employees: about 40%, or 170 plants.
• It starts with the manufacturers on the Chamber list, from Roper Corporation and Astec down to M & M Industries, because their plant managers are easy to identify.

Bebop can search for "Hamilton County manufacturers with 50 to 500 employees that added a production line in the last two years" and explain why each fits.

Subject: Planned maintenance for [Company]'s [line]

Hi [first name],

When a plant adds a line, the maintenance team usually gets the same headcount and twice the equipment. That's where unplanned downtime starts.

We run preventive maintenance for Hamilton County plants alongside the in-house team, on a fixed monthly schedule. Could we walk your floor for an hour and show you what we'd take off your team's list?

[Your name], Lookout Industrial Services

Next step: turn this market into a working list with how to build a prospect list.