Global Reach: A New Ammunition Entity is Making its Mark in America and Abroad.
By Slaton L. White
Industrial powerhouse is a much-overused term, but when considering the world-wide reach of D&M Holding Co., it is a completely apt description of the company’s importance to the ammunition industry. Founded in 2018 by Dan Powers, former president of the SIG Sauer Ammunition division, and James Jones, a defense industry executive, D&M Holding Company, Inc. is an ammunition and energetics engineering group based in Tampa, Florida, and Cabot, Arkansas.
The group specializes in greenfield projects (i.e., a new undertaking that starts from scratch on undeveloped land or without any pre-existing infrastructure or systems), often for companies and countries that have never before been in the ammunition, primer, or propellant business. Global demand for reliable supplies of ammunition, primers, and powder is soaring as a matter national security, and D&M is working nonstop to support the U.S., NATO countries, and other friendly foreign governments.
D&M specializes in design and manufacture of equipment for the ammunition and energetics industry and in the development of turnkey factories for government and commercial customers worldwide. D&M’s turnkey factories include solutions for ammunition production, primer production, as well as propellant production for everything from small-caliber ammunition to artillery. D&M services include all aspects of the project from site planning and floor planning to equipment manufacture and installation, as well as the secret sauce, the transfer of know-how. D&M offers intensive training to its clients and 24/7 support.
Left to right: D&M Holding Vice President of Business Development James Jones, President of Ukraine Volodyrmyr Zelenskyy, and D&M Holding President and CEO Dan Powers
Under the leadership of president and CEO Dan Powers, along with business partners B.J. Rogers and James Jones, D&M has become a name spoken everywhere as the one company that you can count on to finish a factory and make it run, period.
“D&M is unique in that we are the only company in the industry that offers solutions for all ammunition components, including ammunition factories, primer factories, and propellant factories. We have no competitor that does all three,” Powers says.
Powers and his team have built ammunition factories in the United States and Ukraine with more in the works globally. Some current projects include: Canada (building plants to produce nitrocellulose, single-base and double-base powders, primers, and ammunition components), Ukraine (currently the company has two ammunition projects and a primer project in the works), Eastern Europe (building a single-base powder plant for a southeastern European country with other projects in the works), and the United States (D&M Holding is expanding its own White River Energetics primer facility in Arkansas to include a propellant factory, laboratories for R&D, and a training center).
Given the success of SIG Sauer’s ammo division, it’s fair to ask why Powers left to strike out on his own. His decision to leave SIG was molded by that very success.
“When I was at SIG Sauer, there were a lot of articles written about me and the SIG ammunition division, and as time passed, I realized there was much more I could do beyond SIG Sauer,” he says. “As a result of this exposure, I started receiving calls from all over the world when word got out that I had left SIG—calls from private companies and governments—asking me to help improve their current ammunition facilities and/or build new ones for them.”
“James Jones and I spent two years traveling all over the world visiting factories, meeting with potential customers, and listening to their needs. It was clear that parts of our industry were underserved and, in some cases, untouched, and we saw an opportunity to fill the gap. This intensive information gathering process, combined with my experience at SIG, helped us develop our business model, which continues to guide our innovation and drive our growth.”
“Today the services D&M provides are much needed worldwide, and we are working nonstop to support NATO countries and other friendly foreign governments in their efforts to ensure adequate ammunition supplies for their troops.”
Dan Powers (Left) and James Jones are intent on making D&M Holding an ammo powerhouse.
Initial Success
D&M’s first big stand-alone project was building out a multi-million-dollar ammunition facility in Ukraine. D&M won a competitive contract with the government of Ukraine to build the new ammunition factory after the country’s existing factory was lost during the initial Russian invasion of 2014. Ukraine needed a modern factory that could produce multiple calibers, including both NATO and Russian standards, and D&M offered the best solution.
D&M had delivered all the equipment and was in process of installation when the U.S. government told the team to leave because the invasion was imminent.
“We were on one of the last flights out of Kyiv before Russia invaded on February 24, 2022,” says James Jones, vice president of business development of D&M.
When it was clear the Russian advance to Kyiv was stalled, D&M hired a security firm and began making plans to return to Ukraine. Against U.S. government advice due to safety concerns, Powers and a team of D&M employee volunteers quietly crossed the border and finished commissioning the factory, which now produces ammunition 24/7 for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The successful completion of the factory put D&M on the map and has been a success story touted by both the governments of Ukraine and the U.S. D&M has since signed agreements for multiple projects in Ukraine, including ammunition and primer production.
A D&M case-manufacturing annealer at work. This process increases ductility and reduces hardness, making the material easier to work with.
Business Expansion
“D&M’s initial focus was on manufacturing of the machinery, but the COVID pandemic forced us to vertically integrate quickly to meet delivery deadlines. We were forced into making our own tooling because suppliers were so backlogged. D&M could not honor its contracts without faster access to necessary tooling,” says B.J. Rogers, vice president of operations for D&M.
As a result, D&M began making its own parts and tooling, such as carbide dies and punches, to get the job done. That now allows D&M to develop new caliber solutions quickly without the standard 90-day delay in tooling.
This started the progression of D&M adding capabilities and capacity throughout the company, which has included expanding its machine shop and fabrication shop, as well as the acquisition of two additional companies with more acquisitions planned. D&M has also added divisions and specialties over the years. Power’s strong industry relationships could ensure D&M customers had powder, but primers were an issue. So, D&M created White River Energetics, LLC, and started making primers. In the past 18 months, D&M has created an energetics division capable of producing powder plants as well. These plants allow D&M to supply industry partners with the products they need while also providing a training ground for their clients.
Ammo in a D&M sealing machine. The process is designed to protect cartridges from moisture, chemical exposure, and environmental degradation, thus ensuring dependable performance even in the most demanding conditions.
White River Energetics (WRE)
D&M built WRE to supply customers with primers and is currently expanding the primer business and building a new powder factory there. “We are expanding our primer facility at White River Energetics and building a propellant factory there due to increasing demand worldwide. Currently, there is a worldwide shortage of smokeless propellant that is affecting munitions availability globally. This will be the first propellant factory to be built in the United States in over 50 years and is an important step to ensure that D&M customers have a steady source of powder in the years ahead,” Powers says.
WRE currently makes around 800 million primers a year; around 600 million of those go to OEM customer here in the U.S. for small and large caliber pistol and rifle ammunition. Some of these are sold by distributors to dealers.
By mid 2026, primer production will increase to around 1.2 to 1.4 billion primers, with many more going to the consumer. D&M intends to sell direct to box stores and work with select distributors.
Building a primer manufacturing facility takes a lot of time and money and is an inherently dangerous endeavor, as there is always risk when handling explosive materials. But Powers says that the White River Energetics facility has been designed to greatly reduce this side of ammo production.
“We wanted to make it the most automated and safest primer facility in the world on the chemistry side. All reactions happen without a person in the room. We can manage the dangerous part of the process in a control center by the way we have designed our flow meters. It’s all done by touch screen, and we design our own software to open and close those valves. Our propellant will be made differently, but the process is still very safe. We will be incorporating the newest and safest innovations we can use in a powder facility.”
White River Energetics (WRE) was created to supply customers with primers. The company is currently undergoing expansion.