Kessler Soils Engineering Products, Inc.

Kessler Soils Engineering Products, Inc., a woman-owned small business based in Leesburg, Virginia, manufactures specialized geotechnical and infrastructure testing equipment for the Department of Defense and federal construction agencies as a prime contractor on firm-fixed-price purchase orders and delivery orders, competing predominantly full-and-open with no set-aside designation on the majority of its federal work.

Kessler's product portfolio centers on soil mechanics and pavement testing instruments, particularly penetrometers (both manual and automatic dynamic cone penetrometers), lightweight deflectometers, California Bearing Ratio testers, magnetic rulers, weighing scales, and asphalt testing devices. The company manufactures equipment to ASTM standards and provides supporting technical services. Representative recent work includes a $103,935 supply of airfield surveying equipment to the Air Force Special Operations Command (set aside for small business, awarded August 2024), a $42,042 delivery of soil stabilization test kits (DCP Kits) to the Air Force (set aside for small business, awarded September 2023), a $31,466 supply of an Automatic Dynamic Cone Penetrometer system to the Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (awarded September 2023), and a $26,420 supply of a Zorn LWD Asphalt Tester Device to the Engineer Research and Development Center (set aside for small business, awarded September 2023). Kessler also supplies smaller consumable and replacement components — penetrometer heads, adapters, weighing scales, printers, and connector hardware — to Defense Logistics Agency supply lines for field equipment maintenance.

Customer concentration is fragmented across the Defense Logistics Agency supply chain and military commands. The top five customer agencies by award count account for 65% of recent awards, led by DLA Aviation (69 awards, $387 thousand combined potential value), DLA Troop Support Construction and Equipment (29 awards, $64 thousand), DLA Land and Maritime (21 awards, $106 thousand), Air Force Special Operations Command (14 awards, $1.1 million), and Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (9 awards, $233 thousand). By potential value, concentration is considerably tighter: the GSA Federal Acquisition Service (2 awards, $7.3 million, anchored by Kessler's GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract 47QSWA21D005A running through June 2026 with a ceiling of approximately $3.7 million) and Army Materiel Command Contracting Command Detroit Arsenal (2 awards, $4.6 million) together account for the majority of the vendor's dollar pipeline. The United States Marine Corps holds 8 awards worth $2.6 million combined potential value. This split reflects a business model in which high-touch, specification-heavy equipment sales (DCPs, asphalt testers, automated data collection systems) anchor the largest dollar values to a handful of research and materiel agencies, while the GSA MAS vehicle and DLA supply lines generate volume through smaller, routine component and consumable orders.

Kessler's parent vehicle footprint is narrow. The company holds a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract (37 task orders, $1.1 million combined potential value) through June 2026, which facilitates procurement of its testing instruments across federal agencies. Kessler also operates under an Indefinite Delivery Contract M6785410D5062 with 4 task orders totaling approximately $1 million in combined potential value.

Award activity has fluctuated over the past five years: six awards in 2022, fourteen in 2023, eight in 2024, seven in 2025, and one in 2026 (through mid-June). Combined potential value across all 218 awards totals $17.4 million, with $4.3 million obligated to date (25% of potential). The vendor's award history extends to 1996, indicating three decades of federal contracting. Kessler maintains a subcontract relationship with Atlantic Diving Supply, Inc., as noted in a May 2024 sub-award for a magnetic ruler with upper attachment; however, subcontracting represents less than 1% of its portfolio (1 of 218 awards), and the vendor operates almost exclusively as a prime contractor.

NAICS coding confirms Kessler's identity as a specialized equipment manufacturer: 74 awards fall under Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing, 47 under Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables, and 14 under Scale and Balance Manufacturing. Physical Properties Testing and Inspection (PSC code) accounts for 80 awards, reflecting the core geotechnical mission.