Central Association For The Blind, Inc.

Central Association For The Blind, Inc., doing business as 11 20 Shipyard Express Store, is an AbilityOne tax-exempt non-profit organization based in Utica, New York, that manufactures and supplies office supplies, personal protective equipment, medical equipment, military apparel, and miscellaneous goods to federal agencies as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards) without reliance on set-aside designations. The organization competes in full-and-open federal procurement across a portfolio of roughly 2,800 prime awards spanning 2,800 distinct customer agencies, with particular concentration in goods and supplies manufacturing rather than service delivery.

Customer concentration is split decisively by transaction value. Naval Sea Systems Command dominates by award count, placing 702 delivery orders valued at $1.7 million combined, but the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support Construction and Equipment anchors the dollar footprint with 107 awards totaling $510.2 million combined potential value—representing 53% of the vendor's total portfolio value. The Transportation Security Administration follows with 270 awards worth $153 million, predominantly uniforms and related apparel. The top five customer agencies by dollars account for 72% of combined potential value. Federal Medical Center Rochester (Bureau of Prisons) has awarded 86 purchase orders for nitrile exam gloves and related personal protective equipment to Central Association, while Veterans Integrated Service Network 9 awarded a $3.3 million telephone operator services definitive contract running through December 2030 to Lexington, Kentucky. The Department of the Army awarded a $77 thousand furniture delivery order in September 2025 for Picatinny Arsenal and Fort Hamilton, New York.

The vendor's vehicle position reflects its dominant reliance on standing IDVs and BOAs. The Basic Ordering Agreement V797P2015 carries 667 task orders with $189 thousand combined value; the Indefinite Delivery Contract N0018918DG003 (Naval Sea Systems Command) carries 646 task orders worth $2.5 million; and the VA's Basic Ordering Agreement VA797BO0176 carries 269 task orders worth $8.1 million. The Blanket Purchase Agreement HSTS0514AOSO007 (TSA) supports 217 task orders valued at $38 million. In July 2025, the Air Force awarded a separate $1.25 million Blanket Purchase Agreement running through July 2030 for military clothing and associated items to the 94th Logistics Readiness Squadron, positioning Central Association as a multiple-award awardee alongside other qualified vendors.

Activity has been consistent, averaging roughly 250 awards per year across 2023–2025, with only three awards recorded in 2026 year-to-date as of late April. The recompete exposure is minimal: only one award totaling $10.7 million reaches ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. SCI-reported invoicing on federal service contracts captured only $5.5 million across FY2023–FY2024 (zero in FY2022), reflecting roughly 37.7 to 39.5 FTEs on the two prime service contracts in scope; government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable work ran a median of $34.07 per hour, with rates ranging from around $31.25 to $35.70 per hour. The SCI dataset is a strict subset covering only service contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold and does not reflect the vendor's extensive goods and supplies pipeline, which dominates the award count and represents the bulk of its federal revenue.

The vendor's category concentration underscores its goods-and-manufacturing posture: the top NAICS codes are Facilities Support Services (758 awards), Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing (675 awards), and Surgical Appliance and Supplies Manufacturing (427 awards). The top PSC code is Medical and Surgical Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies (1,025 awards), followed by Clothing Special Purpose (366 awards) and Office Supplies (311 awards). Central Association operates as a mission-driven manufacturer leveraging AbilityOne employment mandates to generate federal procurement volume across commodity supply chains serving the Navy, DLA, TSA, VA, and Bureau of Prisons. The organization holds no identifiable subcontracting footprint on the prime side and reports zero sub-engagement on SCI service contracts. Sub-award activity is negligible: one "other than schedule supplies purchase" sub-award in March 2026 and a research sub-award under Johns Hopkins University's Low Vision Assessments in Virtual Reality grant (December 2025) represent the full extent of subsidiary work in the source data.