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Having a customer with an almost $850 billion budget sounds like a potential boon for most companies—and it is. But if that purchaser is a company’s sole customer, that exposure comes with risk, even if the customer is the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
Representatives from three Advanced Textiles Association member companies discuss government contracts and why diversification is still necessary, even when one of your major clients is the government—or if you would like it to be one.
A core business model
The argument for diversifying—both products and the customer base—is so strong that Joey Smith, former director of sales and business development of MMI Textiles in Brooklyn, Ohio, calls it a core business model.
“It really does help with stabilizing your year-over-year growth,” he says. “It helps with the peaks and valleys that are not only in the military market but also in automotive, medical and commercial markets, depending on what’s going on in the economy.”
MMI started out in several markets, including commercial and a small portion of military, but expanded to supply products for the defense industry once MMI purchased National Dye Works in 2007. Military, tactical and law enforcement products constitute a large portion of that company’s portfolio, Smith says. Among the products MMI provides are a military line of fabrics, webbing and tape, hardware, and hook-and-loop fasteners.
The government sales window
Companies that serve commercial clients typically see sales throughout the year. Government procurement is different. These sales occur once a year in a 30- to 60-day time frame because federal government spending is based on the fiscal calendar that ends Sept. 30.
“We tend to see most of our sales occur during a very short time period as funding gets obligated for the year,” says Adam Liette, marketing director of Celina Tent, Celina, Ohio. “[With] the military, it tends to come in waves as funding is approved and then back to minimal military sales.”
The business began as a tent rental company in 1996. The company expanded its markets in 2006 when it began supplying tents to the Federal Emergency Management Agency because the agency’s supplier no longer manufactured tents. Those products include small- and medium-sized shelters in addition to shelters designed to resist chemical, biological and radioactive contamination. Other products designed for defense include large-area maintenance shelters, which can house aircraft and drones.
Being in multiple markets has helped Celina balance the large but short-term sales burst the defense market offers. Liette notes that in the middle of summer, Celina’s tent rental business begins to slow down—just when military sales pick up. “So having those two offset each other really works out well,” he says.
Bob Rosania, CEO of Ehmke Manufacturing Company Inc., based in Philadelphia, Pa., says that balance is also important to his company, even though military products make up the bulk of the company’s work and that seasonality isn’t as much a factor as it once was.
“When your government contracting is down, then you have to turn to that 20% that represents nongovernment work and make sure those customers are secure,” says Rosania. “Our goal is to continue to diversify. And we have some excellent nonmilitary customers—a sound abatement company, a fitness company. There are items that we make that are unrelated to the military.”
Forecasting, according to Liette, is the key to managing the production schedule. “Being able to project forward manufacture for the upcoming season rather than being in a reactional mode—just keeping a really steady feel on how much of each product we’re going to sell and getting good at projecting—lets us keep our floor moving and keep our employees on the job day after day,” Liette says.
Adapting products to another market
Because of the added cost of compliance with government regulations, Liette cautions that products made specifically for the military could be too expensive for some commercial and industrial markets without modification. He cited the Berry Amendment, which requires that certain items purchased by the DOD must be made in the United States.
“I’m all for American jobs as much as every other red-blooded American, but the world is flat, and Thomas Friedman wrote about that about 25 years ago,” says Liette, referring to Friedman’s book The World Is Flat about globalization. “So even the fabric must be 100% made in America, and those economies just don’t exist at scale.”
The takeaway, according to Liette, is that “if you’re going to take that same product [and] move it into another sector, you’re likely going to have to do some modifications, whether that’s in the manufacturing process or in your supply chain, to be able to meet the requirements of the market that you’re entering.”
That said, products developed for the defense industry can work for commercial clients. Rosania gives the example of work that Ehmke did to protect the engines and frames of Boeing’s military aircraft.
“We developed a whole line of business of foreign object debris (FOD) protection that would protect valuable components, equipment and personnel during the manufacturing process,” says Rosania. “There are other companies that saw that and bought into it. Delta Airlines, for instance, at their TechOps facility, have all kinds of antenna covers, padded covers and ‘remove before flight’ streamers covering their aircraft. The FOD items have prevented damage to their aircraft during maintenance and have prevented injuries to their mechanics.”
Ehmke has a history of being a textile manufacturing business. However, Rosania and former business partner Cliff Stokes, both mechanical engineers, changed the emphasis of the company when they bought it in 1992.
“We started focusing on the more technically sophisticated items, and that drove us to the military and the defense marketplace,” says Rosania. That change in direction led to Ehmke working as the sole source supplier of Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter and V-22 Osprey aircraft interiors.
Many ways to diversify
Diversification is an ongoing process, a constant quest to identify and design new products that customers will find beneficial.
Liette notes that Celina Tent, which is in western Ohio, is surrounded by cornfields, hog farms and turkey facilities. A natural market was outside the company’s windows.
“We’ve done a fair bit of work in the agricultural industry, specifically looking at products and other structures that are used on farms,” says Liette.“If you think about the materials and manufacturing processes that are required to make agricultural products, there are congruencies with other areas of our business.”
Another area where Celina has expanded its diversification efforts is printing. “We have developed what I argue is one of the best printing facilities in the tent industry,” he says. “We have multiple printers running. We can do very, very big tents with perfection because we’re able to print the individual panels and then do the welding here on-site to make sure that it is a good image for our end customer. So, building out our printing capabilities, being able to do very large projects is definitely an area that we’re able to expand our business.”
“We have our own engineering group where we do product design and innovation,” says Rosania. “We’re fearless on taking on projects that need to be designed and made. Offering that capability to any customer, be it a military customer or commercial customer, is a real value to them.”
MMI also is constantly working on product development, says Smith. “We look at markets that we’re not currently in or could possibly be in based on our technical expertise,” he says. “We also talk to our customers and listen to the pain points and issues that they’re having from their suppliers to understand if that’s something that we currently have in our product portfolio. And if it’s not, is it something we need to help develop for them?”
Another way to diversify is through acquisition. MMI purchased Jason Mills early in 2025, which launched MMI into the world of golf simulators.
“It was a good bolt-on for us because it introduced us into markets that we traditionally haven’t been in,” says Smith. “But it also is a good bolt-on for us because we have products that we can sell to those customers that Jason Mills previously didn’t have access to. They [customers] can come to us and we’re the one-stop shop. We can sell them fabrics. We can sell them hook and loop. We can sell them webbing. We can sell them the plastic hardware that they need.”
That kind of diversity can go a long way with customers. As part of the sales closing process, Ehmke encourages potential customers to tour its plant to view its manufacturing operation. “Invariably, when these people are leaving, they say, ‘It’s amazing the diversity of product that you make, from a small individual first-aid kit to your SkyShield padded hail cover that fits over a whole C-130 aircraft.’”
Alan Pierce is a freelance writer in Burnsville, Minn., with a background in journalism as a reporter and editor.
SIDEBAR: Winning tactics: Advice for securing military contracts
hile some companies seek to diversify by landing more commercial and industrial customers, other companies might want to pursue government contracts in defense.
Adam Liette, marketing director at Celina Tent in Celina, Ohio; Joey Smith, former director of sales and business development at MMI Textiles in Brooklyn, Ohio; and Bob Rosania, CEO of Ehmke Manufacturing Company Inc., in Philadelphia, Pa., have some suggestions based on their experience.
Networking
“My biggest advice is: Your network is your net worth. The governmental sector is about networking,” says Liette. “Many companies never actually contract directly with the government. They contract through a prime contractor. There are a lot of us subcontractors who are contracting through these primes that have Washington, D.C., offices, lobbyists and worldwide reach. … You can’t just build that capacity overnight, and even if you could, it would crush you in overhead. So find out where you fit in the process and network your way to getting those first successes.”
Trade shows
Attending trade shows is a way to break into these markets, according to Smith.
He recommends:
- Joint Advanced Planning Brief for Industry, aka JAPBI, hosted by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support Clothing and Textiles, Nov. 18–20 in Cherry Hill, N.J.
- Textile Apparel Group, or TAG conference, which supports military contracts for DLA; the Spring 2026 International Conference is May 6–8 in Las Vegas, Nev.
- SHOT Show, an annual trade show that features exhibits devoted to protection equipment and tactical accessories used by law enforcement and the armed forces. It’s Jan. 20–23, 2026.
- Warrior East, an expo that features product demonstrations and offers networking opportunities with industry experts in the military and law enforcement. The next one is June 24-25, 2026, in Virginia Beach, Va.
Quality counts
Rosania adds that companies need a quality manufacturing system in place when pursuing government projects. “In our case, we were ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified,” he says.
It also is vital to be familiar with Department of Defense and other government contracts and to follow the requirements.
For more on contracting with the military, see the special e-edition of Specialty Fabrics Review: Military Market: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities.