Container Research Corp

Container Research Corp, a for-profit small business manufacturer headquartered in Aston, Pennsylvania, supplies specialized shipping containers, cushions, protective hardware, and precision-engineered logistics components to the U.S. Department of Defense as a prime contractor (99% of recent awards) and occasional subcontractor on defense aerospace programs. The company operates through its subsidiary, Container Research Corporation, which holds small disadvantaged business and veteran-owned business certifications. Container Research Corp competes predominantly in full-and-open federal procurements without set-aside restrictions, though it qualifies for small business set-asides on selective awards; nearly all recent prime work carries no set-aside designation.

The company's federal customer base concentrates heavily in defense logistics. The top five customer organizations—by both award count and dollar value—account for 85% to 86% of recent awards. The Department of the Navy Naval Supply Systems Command dominates the dollar ranking with 619 awards carrying $116.7 million in combined potential value, anchored by a $4.9 million five-year indefinite delivery contract for container design, engineering, manufacturing, and testing of aluminum and plastic reusable shipping and storage containers running through September 2029. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation places the most orders by count (1,997 awards, $10.5 million combined potential value), followed by DLA Troop Support Construction and Equipment (249 awards, $3.1 million), DLA Troop Support Hardware (192 awards, $2.2 million), and the Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command (19 awards, $31.8 million combined potential value). Naval Air Systems Command contributes 73 awards worth $16.2 million combined potential value. The Naval Sea Systems and Naval Air Systems ranking by dollars reflects high-value definitive contracts and delivery orders for specialized container work, in contrast to DLA Aviation's transactional purchase-order model.

Container Research Corp's capability portfolio centers on physical manufacturing of defense logistics components. Work falls across five core product categories: specialized shipping and storage containers (1,564 awards, the largest NAICS grouping under "Other Support Activities for Air Transportation" at 1,462 awards and "Other Metal Container Manufacturing" at 488 awards), packing and gasket materials (434 awards), commercial hardware such as brackets, fasteners, and mounting assemblies (329 awards for "Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing" and 191 for "Hardware Manufacturing"), and smaller volumes of nuts, washers, bolts, and precision metal components (165 to 101 awards each). Representative concrete work includes $2.78 million shipping and storage container manufacturing for Naval Supply Systems Command (September 2025), $1.3 million shipping and storage containers for Naval Supply Systems Command (January 2026), $245 thousand specialized containers for DLA Troop Support Construction and Equipment (April 2025), $127 thousand shipping and storage components for Aviation and Missile Command in support of the CH-47D Chinook program (August 2025), $169 thousand cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order for CH-53K main rotor blade components (November 2024), and continuous high-volume purchase orders from DLA Aviation for cushions, brackets, gaskets, and other logistics hardware ranging from $1.3 thousand to $23 thousand per order.

Container Research Corp holds three active indefinite delivery contracts. The largest is the Naval Supply Systems Command single-award IDC valued at $4.931 million through September 2029 for aluminum and plastic reusable container design, engineering, manufacturing, and testing—the foundation of its Navy relationship. A Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime single-award IDC for specialized non-metallic seals and clamping catches is valued at $250 thousand with a one-year term through July 2026 and carries a guaranteed minimum of 186 units annually across 12 estimated orders. A newly awarded Aviation and Missile Command single-award IDC valued at $573.5 thousand through September 2030 covers shipping and storage containers. These three vehicles generated the bulk of the company's recent delivery orders and task orders; the top-five named parent vehicles combined account for 147 task orders worth $29 million across NAVSUP, DLA, and AMCOM procurement authority.

Activity has declined measurably from peak years. Container Research Corp received 273 awards in 2022, 251 in 2023, 284 in 2024, but only 162 in 2025 and nine through mid-2026 in the source snapshot. The source data spans 3,850 total prime and sub awards since November 1980; the 2025 slowdown and low 2026 count reflect either delayed reporting or a contraction in transaction volume. Within the next 24 months, 17 awards with combined potential value of $7 million face ultimate completion and recompete exposure.

In its subcontractor role (1% of awards), Container Research Corp supplies aircraft parts and aerospace support to Boeing (Apache Performance-Based Logistics Phase IV airframe component services, CH-47F long-lead items for Germany procurement), Sikorsky Aircraft (CH-53K main rotor and tail rotor blade spares, Combat Rescue Helicopter components, rotary-wing spares), and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Dragonfly Extended Phase B aerospace research and development). These subs represent niche aerospace manufacturing capability layered atop the company's dominant defense logistics container and hardware business.

Container Research Corp's federal footprint is narrow by agency but deep by transaction count and contract value—driven by high-volume transactional logistics purchasing (DLA Aviation), large single-source and limited-source container procurements with flight-critical qualification (NAVSUP), and niche aerospace component work through major defense primes. The company competes across the full and open landscape with no dominant set-aside posture, reflecting its maturity and small business status as a qualified source across multiple Navy, Army, and DLA supply chains rather than as a small-business-set-aside specialist.

REUSABLE METAL SHIPPING & STORAGE CONTAINERS,DESIGN,PROTOTYPE,MFTR & TEST;FABRICATION OF PLATE,LIGHT STRUCTURAL & SHEET METAL.AIRCRAFT ENGINE CONTAINERS,SHIPPING & MAINT. STANDS,ELECT. ENCLOSURES/RACKS SPACE SATELLITE CONTAINERS,PERISCOPE,LARGE ELECTRIC R