Hickey Bros Research LLC

Hickey Bros Research LLC, a woman-owned small business based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, delivers specialized gillnetting, trapnetting, and invasive species suppression services to the Department of the Interior as a prime contractor on 52 federal awards totaling $45 million in combined potential value. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime (100% of awards) with no subcontractor footprint, competing under total small business set-asides on its core Indefinite Delivery Contract work and firm fixed-price delivery orders across a narrow customer base anchored in Department of the Interior resource-management agencies.

Hickey Bros Research LLC's capability portfolio centers on aquatic ecosystem management and invasive fish species control, with specialized technical expertise in gillnetting and trapnetting operations on high-altitude lakes. The company manufactures custom netting equipment and performs both field operations and equipment support. Representative work includes a $9.75 million Indefinite Delivery Contract awarded by the National Park Service Intermountain Region in April 2024 for lake trout gillnetting and trapnetting services on Yellowstone Lake running through April 2029; a $1.87 million delivery order from the same agency in April 2026 for lake trout gillnetting also on Yellowstone Lake; and a $49,973 purchase order from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 6 in June 2026 for lake trout suppression netting at Kalispell, Montana, completed by March 2027. Earlier work includes a $543,293 purchase order for Yellowstone gillnetting (August 2023) and a $1.44 million delivery order for the same work (December 2022).

Customer concentration is extreme: the National Park Service Intermountain Region accounts for 35 awards valued at $44.4 million (98% of combined potential value), effectively representing Yellowstone Lake lake trout management as the vendor's single dominant program. The U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants represents 12 awards worth $460 thousand, and the Fish and Wildlife Service regional offices account for the remaining $157 thousand across four awards. The vendor has worked with Department of the Interior entities since at least 2010 (per award portfolio data) and maintains recurring relationships across the same three customer units. Two IDVs dominate the vehicle portfolio: Indefinite Delivery Contract 140P1418D0006 carries 14 task orders valued at $9 million, and IDC 140P1424D0001 holds 7 task orders valued at $6.7 million; both are anchored in Yellowstone Lake work under the NPS Intermountain Region.

Service Contract Inventory data shows SCI-reportable invoiced revenue of $3.7 million in FY2023 and $3.9 million in FY2024 across a reported 263 FTEs in FY2023 and 16.1 FTEs in FY2024 — a sharp contraction likely reflecting the shift from hourly field labor reporting under individual contracts to fixed-price delivery order accounting. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, government-paid rates ranged from $50.47/hr at the 10th percentile to a median of $127.19/hr, with senior technical labor priced through $747.08/hr. The vendor performs all work in-house (0% sub-hours share on prime contracts) and does not operate as a subcontractor to other primes. Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months is modest: four awards with ultimate completion dates between June 2026 and June 2027 carry $4 million in combined potential value, concentrated in Fish and Wildlife Service regional work and smaller USGS effort outside the core Yellowstone lake trout program.