Conrad Embroidery Company, LLC

Conrad Embroidery Company, LLC (doing business as CEC), a small business subsidiary of Conrad Industries, Inc., manufactures military-specification embroidered insignia and uniform components for the Department of Defense as a prime contractor on firm-fixed-price purchase orders and delivery orders. The company, headquartered in Weaverville, North Carolina, operates predominantly under total small business set-aside contracts issued by the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Clothing and Textiles division, though it also competes full-and-open on unrestricted orders with the same customer.

CEC's federal portfolio centers on a narrow, highly specialized capability: embroidered military insignia including shoulder sleeve insignia, enlisted grade insignia, beret insignia, and service stripes. Recent awards include a $202.5 million firm fixed-price purchase order for 15,000 units of enlisted grade insignia (October 2025, Total Small Business set-aside), a $177 thousand order for 20,000 units of overseas service bars (October 2025, Total Small Business set-aside), and a $301.2 thousand order for 30,000 service stripe units (September 2025, Total Small Business set-aside). The company also holds a $14.6 thousand contract from the Army Sustainment Command for cadet patches (April 2025, Total Small Business set-aside) and a $45.5 thousand order from Air Education and Training Command for 737 TRG OCP uniform patches (January 2025, Total Small Business set-aside). Awards frequently specify delivery to Arizona Industries for the Blind, indicating fulfillment of federal procurement requirements for employment of individuals with disabilities.

Customer concentration is extreme. The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Clothing and Textiles division accounts for 837 of 867 total awards (99% of count) and $27.9 million of $29.6 million combined potential value (94% of dollars). The remaining five federal agencies—the Department of the Army Materiel Command Sustainment Command, Department of the Army Acquisition Support Center PEO Soldier, Department of the Air Force Headquarters Air Force Academy, Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons, and Department of the Army Pacific Command—collectively represent fewer than 30 awards and less than $1.5 million in potential value. Award velocity peaked at 118 per year in 2022, declined to 46 in 2023, recovered to 81 in 2024, and rose to 104 in 2025, indicating volatility in DLA ordering patterns.

CEC sits on five named Indefinite Delivery Contracts with DLA Troop Support, each valued at $250 thousand and designated as total small business set-asides. These single-award IDCs (SPE1C116D1065, SPE1C124D0032, SPE1C123D0034, SPE1C124D5013, SPE1C124D5015, and others with ultimate completion dates extending through April 2027 and September 2027) provide streamlined procurement vehicles through which DLA issues firm-fixed-price purchase orders and delivery orders for specified National Stock Numbers of embroidered insignia. The top IDC by task-order count and value is SPE1C116D1065, which carried 13 task orders worth $987 thousand combined potential value.

Within the next twenty-four months, six awards carrying combined potential value of $410 thousand face ultimate completion and therefore recompete exposure. Most awards in the recent pipeline complete between June 2025 and July 2026, creating a recompete cliff for Q3 2025 through Q3 2026 that represents modest absolute risk but encompasses a material share of CEC's active contract footprint.

CEC operates exclusively as a prime contractor on federal work; no subcontract activity appears in the award history. The company's capability portfolio is vertically integrated into manufacturing only—there are no named teaming relationships, no technology partnerships, and no subcontractor dependencies documented. All work is performed at the Weaverville, North Carolina facility. CEC competes predominantly under total small business set-asides on its core DLA Troop Support vehicle, but also captures full-and-open awards from the same customer on individual purchase orders. Set-aside posture is consistent across the prime footprint: virtually all awards either carry total small business designation or are issued without set-aside under an underlying small-business-set-aside IDC.

The vendor's award concentration in a single PSC category (Badges and Insignia: 860 of 867 awards) and narrow NAICS profile (Cut and Sew Apparel Contractors represents 110 of 867 awards; footwear and miscellaneous textile and fabricated metal categories account for the remainder) reflects deep specialization in military embroidery. Dollar amounts are consistently firm fixed-price, ranging from low hundreds to mid-six figures per order. Recent obligated spend through 2026 stands at $11.7 million against $29.6 million in potential value, indicating roughly 40% drawdown of ceiling authority in active and completed work.