The 100 Largest Companies In North Carolina For 2021

If you live in North Carolina and you’re looking for a job, you have come to the right place.

Because, sure, you can google things like ‘biggest companies in North Carolina’ and get a fairly long list of companies with a lot of employees, or perhaps that have the biggest names — but here, we bring you the companies with the most current employees that are actually headquartered in North Carolina.

Below, we’ll give you a complete list of North Carolina’s 100 largest companies, but first, here’s a look at the top 10:

Compass Group comes in at the top, with more current employees than any other company in the state. We’ll get to specifics in a moment; first, here’s a look at our methodology.

How we identified the biggest companies in North Carolina

Here at Zippia we have developed a database of over 250,000 companies that spans the entire country.

For this report, we looked at the companies headquartered in North Carolina with at least 100 employees. That left us with 1,028 companies.

We then ranked each company from most to least current employees to determine the biggest companies in North Carolina.

As it turns out, Compass Group looks to the be the biggest company in North Carolina clocking in with 595,841 employees.

Now, check out how the 100 biggest companies in North Carolina ranked.

If you’re interested, you can read more about the North Carolina job scene here:

Detailed List Of The 100 Biggest Companies In North Carolina

Rank	Company	City	Employees
1	Compass Group	Charlotte	595,841
2	Lowe’s Companies	Mooresville	310,000
3	Bank of America	Charlotte	204,489
4	Honeywell International	Charlotte	131,000
5	Total S.A.	Raleigh	104,000
6	Quintiles Transnational	Durham	70,001
7	VF	Greensboro	69,000
8	Hanesbrands	Winston-Salem	67,200
9	Food Lion	Salisbury	65,250
10	Family Dollar	Charlotte	60,000
11	Lab	Burlington	52,000
12	Quintiles IMS Holdings	Durham	50,000
13	BBT	Winston-Salem	37,000
14	GKN Driveline – Newton	Newton	31,000
15	Draka Comteq B.V.	Claremont	30,000
16	Harris Teeter	Matthews	30,000
17	Duke Energy	Charlotte	28,798
18	Nucor	Charlotte	25,100
19	Belk	Charlotte	25,000
20	National Power	Raleigh	22,650
21	Grifols	Durham	21,500
22	Jeld-Wen	Charlotte	21,100
23	Pharmaceutical Product Development	Wilmington	21,000
24	CommScope	Hickory	20,000
25	Chiquita Brands	Charlotte	20,000
26	Old Dominion Freight Line	Thomasville	19,183
27	Ingles Markets	Asheville	17,250
28	PRA Health Sciences	Raleigh	15,800
29	Sealed Air	Charlotte	15,000
30	SAS Institute	Cary	13,946
31	The Fresh Market	Greensboro	13,000
32	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Chapel Hill	12,800
33	Wake Forest Baptist Health	Winston-Salem	12,563
34	Vidant Health	Greenville	12,224
35	Mission Health	Asheville	12,016
36	Universal Furniture International	High Point	12,000
37	The Moses H Cone Memorial Hospital	Greensboro	11,000
38	Progress Energy	Raleigh	11,000
39	Duke University	Durham	10,634
40	Hanson Aggregates East	Morrisville	10,600
41	Cato	Charlotte	10,500
42	Red Hat	Raleigh	10,500
43	Bojangles’	Charlotte	10,100
44	Milkco	Asheville	10,001
45	Laneventure	Conover	10,001
46	Machine Tool Heat Treat Service	Raleigh	10,001
47	Boddie-Noell Enterprises	Rocky Mount	10,000
48	Alex Lee	Hickory	10,000
49	Sonic Automotive	Charlotte	9,750
50	BEST	Raleigh	9,403
51	ConvaTec	Greensboro	9,400
52	Hvm	Charlotte	9,300
53	Patheon	Durham	9,000
54	Debbie’s Staffing	Winston-Salem	9,000
55	Lowes Foods	Winston-Salem	9,000
56	BMC Stock Holdings	Raleigh	9,000
57	Hillco	Kinston	9,000
58	Investors Management	Raleigh	9,000
59	Ply Gem Industries	Cary	8,975
60	Qorvo	Greensboro	8,600
61	Diversey	Charlotte	8,600
62	Martin Marietta	Raleigh	8,111
63	Hafele America Co.	Archdale	8,100
64	Hendrick Automotive Group	Charlotte	8,086
65	Curtiss-Wright	Charlotte	8,000
66	SSI Schaefer Systems International	Charlotte	8,000
67	East Carolina University	Greenville	8,000
68	WakeMed Health Hospitals	Raleigh	8,000
69	Atrium Health	Charlotte	7,750
70	NC Judicial Branch	Raleigh	7,500
71	Key Services	Winston-Salem	7,500
72	Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools	Charlotte	7,250
73	Cumberland County Hospital System	Fayetteville	7,000
74	TransTech Energy	Rocky Mount	7,000
75	Variety Wholesalers	Henderson	7,000
76	Biomerieux	Durham	6,828
77	Vrush Industries	High Point	6,500
78	Novozymes North America	Franklinton	6,454
79	Cree	Durham	6,387
80	UNC Health	Chapel Hill	6,250
81	Vectra	Cary	6,200
82	SPX	Charlotte	6,000
83	WilcoHess	Winston-Salem	6,000
84	EnPro Industries	Charlotte	6,000
85	SHOE SHOW	Concord	6,000
86	House of Raeford Farms	Rose Hill	6,000
87	Nash Johnson Sons Farms	Rose Hill	6,000
88	State Employees Credit Union	Raleigh	5,800
89	Guilford County Schools	Greensboro	5,750
90	Renfro	Mount Airy	5,500
91	Butterball	Garner	5,500
92	UNC REX Healthcare	Raleigh	5,500
93	Reynolds American	Winston-Salem	5,400
94	Elior North America	Charlotte	5,168
95	First Citizens BancShares	Raleigh	5,000
96	Rack Room Shoes	Charlotte	5,000
97	Sealy	Trinity	4,817
98	Blue Cross NC	Durham	4,793
99	International Textile Group	Greensboro	4,750
100	Mack Trucks	Greensboro	4,500

For more reading, check out:

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

Find The Best Job That Fits Your Career

Where do you want to work?