Two Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) from Southern Company Gas have been named among the Most Trusted Business Partners in the utility industry for 2019, according to a Cogent Syndicated study by Escalent, formerly Market Strategies International. As two of the top business partners across the U. S., Chattanooga Gas Company and Virginia Natural Gas continue to be industry leaders in business customer engagement and satisfaction.

"To continue to be a leader in the industry, we believe we must put our customers at the center of everything we do at Southern Company Gas. That commitment is certainly reflected in these results," said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Gas. "While we're proud of these honors, we realize this continued focus is essential to future success. We'll continue to aggressively search for even better ways to serve our customers."

The Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study from Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, measures overall business customer engagement performance based on three core components – brand trust, product experience and service satisfaction. Escalent conducted the survey from among 12,000 utility business customers who responded to the web-based survey of the 78 largest electric, natural gas and combination utility companies across the country.

This is the first year that Southern Company Gas LDCs have participated in this study. Chattanooga Gas Company (CGC) ranked second among all utilities and first in the South region, while Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) ranked seventh among all utilities, and fourth in the South region. Both CGC and VNG were ranked among the Top 20 Business Partners nationally. A third LDC, Nicor Gas, participated in the study and was ranked ninth in the Midwest region among its peers.