Shakespeare Company, LLC

Shakespeare Company, LLC Military Electronics Division, doing business as Shakespeare Monofilaments, manufactures and supplies antennas, antenna components, rope and wire products, and related communications equipment to the federal government as a prime contractor competing under full-and-open procurements with no set-aside designations. The company is a foreign-owned for-profit manufacturer headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, and operates as a child entity of Jarden Corporation (Newell Brands). Shakespeare competes exclusively in unrestricted federal procurements across 20 customer agencies, with 99 percent of its federal footprint as prime contracts rather than subwork.

Shakespeare's customer concentration is extreme and narrow. The Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime accounts for 437 awards carrying $24 million in combined potential value — 86 percent of all awards and 86 percent of total potential value. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation (38 awards, $472 thousand), the Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard (32 awards, $450 thousand), and the Department of the Navy Naval Air Systems Command (27 awards, $1.7 million) represent the only other material customers. This concentration in DLA Land and Maritime is both a strength and a risk: the agency's reliance on Shakespeare's supply of specialized antenna and wire products has generated persistent ordering volume, but customer concentration this steep creates acute recompete exposure when individual IDCs complete.

Recent activity has declined sharply. Shakespeare received 67 awards in 2022, 27 in 2023, 5 in 2024, 5 in 2025, and 1 in 2026 — a trajectory from high transaction volume to near dormancy. The combined potential value across all 582 awards in the source portfolio totals $28 million, with $9.8 million obligated (35 percent). This decline aligns with the aging IDC portfolio: Shakespeare holds single-award indefinite delivery contracts with DLA Land and Maritime for antenna cases (ceiling $250,000, ultimate completion July 2, 2025), antenna support bases (ceiling $250,000, completion expired June 1, 2023), antenna elements (ceiling $250,000, completion expired May 9, 2023), antennas (ceiling $250,000, completion expired March 23, 2023), antenna adapters (ceiling $250,000, completion expired February 23, 2023), and with DLA Aviation for rope and wire products (ceiling $250,000, completion November 22, 2026). Most of these IDCs have reached or passed their completion dates, and the IDC delivery-order activity feeding the awards counts has contracted as a result. The top parent vehicle by task order count is Indefinite Delivery Contract SPM7MX13D0086 (59 task orders, $1.2 million combined potential value), followed by SPE7MX18D5026 (24 task orders, $854 thousand).

Shakespeare's capability portfolio centers on antennas, antenna elements, antenna cases, antenna support bases, antenna adapters, guy rope assemblies, stake products, and monofilament rope and wire — all procured by DLA for military logistics and communications infrastructure support. Representative prime awards include a $35.7 million antenna delivery order from DLA Land and Maritime (September 16, 2022), a $30.3 million antenna delivery order from DLA Land and Maritime (October 18, 2021), a $25.6 million antenna purchase order for the Coast Guard Small Boat Product Line (September 7, 2022), and a $112,000 stake product purchase order from DLA Aviation (August 22, 2023). The source notes Shakespeare holds multiple single-award indefinite delivery contracts with DLA Land and Maritime and DLA Aviation, positioning the company as a pre-qualified supplier for standardized antenna and communications components distributed to domestic and overseas military depots. Procurement is firm fixed price across the board; no cost-plus, time-and-materials, or other pricing mechanisms appear in the source.

Shakespeare subcontracts minimally (1 percent of awards). Recent sub-awards include work on the DARPA Transportable HF Antenna Kit program under Southwest Research Institute as prime (four sub-awards dated March 2025 through August 2025) and a Stand Off Flange Base transportable antenna kit sub-award under Scientific Research Corporation (August 2024). No other subcontract primes appear in the source. The sub-award portfolio is peripheral to the prime footprint and does not materially contribute to revenue or customer concentration.

Shakespeare's NAICS and PSC profile reflects antenna and communications-equipment manufacturing. The top NAICS category is Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing (405 awards), with secondary categories in Other Fabricated Wire Product Manufacturing (21 awards) and Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing (16 awards). The PSC code distribution is similarly concentrated: Antennas, Waveguides, And Related Equipment (504 awards), Chain And Wire Rope (21 awards), and Fittings For Rope, Cable, And Chain (13 awards). The NAICS and PSC concentration underscores Shakespeare's specialization in a narrow product class procured almost exclusively by a single customer agency through repetitive, small-to-moderate-value purchase orders and delivery orders against IDCs.

The parent-entity relationship to Jarden Corporation (Newell Brands) is present in the source but does not materially influence Shakespeare's federal posture — the source carries no evidence of cross-selling, shared infrastructure, or leveraging of parent-company procurement channels. Shakespeare operates as a standalone military electronics supplier with a commodity-like relationship to its single dominant customer and no apparent growth strategy or bid pursuit beyond DLA Land and Maritime's recurring requirements.