Powder Inc.

Powder Inc., a veteran-owned Subchapter S Corporation manufacturer based in Clarksville, Arkansas, supplies black powder and related pyrotechnic materials to the National Park Service as a prime contractor exclusively under total small business set-asides and full-and-open competitive purchase orders. The company operates 100 percent as a prime contractor across 430 awards with no subcontracting role, competing predominantly in the total small business set-aside category and maintaining a veteran-owned business designation that recurs across its entire federal portfolio.

Powder Inc.'s capability footprint is narrowly defined: the company manufactures and distributes specialized grades of black powder (cannon grade, sporting grade, Schuetzen), friction primers, percussion caps, and related propellant products designed to support historical weapons demonstrations, living history interpretation programs, and staff training at National Park Service sites. Representative awards include a $4,676 purchase order from the NPS Southeast Region in December 2023 for two hundred pounds of cannon-grade black powder to support reenactments at Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park; a $2,899.50 order from the Northeast Region in April 2024 for Schuetzen sporting-grade powder to Petersburg National Battlefield; and a $2,473.50 May 2026 delivery order from the Southeast Region for black powder supporting historical weapons demonstrations at Fort Pulaski National Park. Award ceilings across the recent footprint range from under three hundred dollars to mid-four-thousands, with firm fixed-price structures on all purchase orders.

Customer concentration is extreme and geographically segmented by NPS region. The Department of the Interior National Park Service Southeast Region dominates both award count and potential value, accounting for 219 awards (51 percent of the 430-award total) and $273 thousand in combined potential value (58 percent of the $469 thousand combined total). The Northeast Region (55 awards, $63 thousand), Midwest Region (58 awards, $59 thousand), National Office (58 awards, $52 thousand), and Intermountain Region (31 awards, $19 thousand) round out the customer set. Together, these five National Park Service organizational units account for 98 percent of award volume and 99 percent of potential value. The rankings by award count and potential value align closely—Southeast Region leads both—with no material divergence between high-volume and high-dollar customers.

Powder Inc. does not sit on parent vehicles, GWACs, or IDIQs. All 430 awards are direct purchase orders issued by individual NPS regional offices and the National Park Service National Office, with no task-order or blanket-purchase-agreement structure in the source footprint.

Activity has remained steady at roughly 17 to 35 awards per year across the last five fiscal years (2022: 29 awards; 2023: 35 awards; 2024: 30 awards; 2025: 17 awards; 2026: 19 awards to date). Twelve awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of twenty thousand dollars and therefore present a recompete window. The combined obligated value of $469 thousand across the entire 430-award portfolio reflects the small-dollar, recurring-supply nature of individual park-level purchase orders.

Powder Inc. records consistent NAICS alignment with explosives and ammunition manufacturing, with Explosives Manufacturing accounting for 225 awards and Ammunition (except Small Arms) Manufacturing for 144 awards. At the PSC level, Miscellaneous Ammunition (178 awards) and Bulk Explosives (166 awards) dominate the categorization, consistent with the black powder and friction-primer product mix.