These Are the 10 Largest Companies in Kentucky in 2024

Over the decades, Kentucky has become a manufacturing mecca. I wonder how many people who don't live here realize that their Jif Peanut Butter, Kellogg's Pop Tarts, and Hot Pockets are manufactured in the Commonwealth. (Or maybe they're too busy enjoying those items to care.)

Would YOU be surprised to learn that as popular as those products are, their parent companies are not among the the 10 largest Kentucky-based corporations as of 2024?

These, however, are, and they are just as recognizable or, at the very least, what they produce is. Rankings are based on the number of employees at each company

10. Grupo Antolin

This nearly-75-year-old company began as a mechanics garage and is now a manufacturer in the car interiors market, specializing in headliner substrates which it supplies to the entire world.

Workforce: 28,000
Headquarters: Hopkinsville

9. Fruit of the Loom

If you're not wearing something with that iconic label on it right now, chances are you have something in your home somewhere that has it. It's Fruit of the Loom; it needs no introduction.

Workforce: 32,400
Headquarters: Bowling Green

8. Yum! Brands

Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC are the gigantic "household word" brands under the Yum! umbrella (Yumbrella?), so the reason it makes the top ten requires little explanation.

Workforce: 34,000
Headquarters: Louisville

7. A&W Restaurants

Sure there are tons of restaurants parented by A&W, but you and I both know why it's so huge...and it comes in a frosty mug with some mighty delicious foam on top.

Workforce: 35,160
Headquarters: Lexington

6. Kindred Healthcare

Kindred's hospitals offer the kind of healthcare BEYOND what might be provided at traditional hospitals. Their facilities include long-term acute care hospitals, subacute unites, and acute rehabilitation units.

Workforce: 38,300
Headquarters: Louisville

5. Humana

Healthcare plans and healthcare facilities. What Humana offers the world pretty much goes without saying, AND to the annual tune of $77.2 billion.

Workforce: 48,700
Headquarters: Louisville

4. Texas Roadhouse

If you've driven past a Texas Roadhouse anywhere on the planet when it is open, you'll know immediately why it ranks so highly on this list. Is there ever even ONE MINUTE when it isn't packed?

Workforce: 64,900
Headquarters: Louisville

3. Sumitomo Corporation

What does Sumitomo do? I'll let globaldata.com explain:

It also operates in the agriculture field, providing fertilizers, crop protection products, and other materials.

Workforce: 74,638
Headquarters: Scottsville

2. Joseph's Salon & Spa

Way up here in the runner-up spot is Louisville's premiere salon, also an Aveda Lifestyle Salon/Spa. It offers a full line of beauty and wellness services.

Workforce: 100,000
Headquarters: Saint Matthews

1. KFC

How appropriate is it that KFC is at the top of the list? I'm not exactly sure how it can rank higher than its parent company, Yum! Brands, but here it is nonetheless. By the way, each of four states--North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming--have fewer residents than KFC has employees. That's gotta be some company Christmas party.

Workforce: 820,000
Headquarters: Louisville