The global demand for large quantities of ammunition, primers and propellants presents a continual challenge for the companies that produce them and a national-security issue for the U.S. military and its allies. It is also cause for concern among civilian shooters in the United States—home of the world’s largest ammunition consumer base.
That reality is what spurred the formation of D&M Holding Co., Inc. (D&M), which was founded in 2018 by Dan Powers (inset, l.), former president of the SIG Sauer Ammunition division and RUAG USA, and James Jones (inset, r.), a defense-industry executive. Since that time, the pair has been working to support the U.S. government, NATO member countries and other foreign allies, and consumer markets by specializing in energetics greenfield projects for the production of ammunition, primers and propellants worldwide.
Since its start, the company has grown to employ 250 workers, with plans to add another 100, and now includes business partner and former Remington ballistics engineer and ammunition plant manager BJ Rogers and executives including primer technology patent holder and senior chemist Don Pile, former St. Marks propellent expert and chemical engineer Jason Lawhon, and M.I.T. graduate and former Raytheon Missile Systems and ATK (Federal) ammunition engineer Leslie Weber.
Based in Tampa, Fla., and Cabot, Ark., D&M has also expanded into the design and manufacture of equipment used to produce energetics for use in arms ranging from handguns to artillery, including providing site and floor planning, equipment manufacture, critical know-how and ’round-the-clock support for its clients. “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 said. The company has built ammunition factories and delivered equipment in the United States, South America and Ukraine with additional projects in the works, including: plants to produce nitrocellulose, single-base and double-base powders, primers and ammunition components in Canada; ammunition projects and a primer project in Ukraine; a single-base powder plant for a Southeastern European country; and expansion of its own White River Energetics (WRE) primer factory in Des Arc, Ark., which will include gunpowder production, laboratories for R&D and a training center.
Acknowledging the risk inherent in primer manufacture, Powers said, “At our WRE facility, 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 designed our own software to open and close those valves. Our propellant will be made differently, but the process is still very safe.” The facility currently makes around 800 million primers a year for small- and large-caliber pistol and rifle ammunition that goes to OEM customers, distributors and dealers in retail markets in Australia, South Africa and Scandinavia. And the company plans to make primers available to U.S. and European consumers as well this year. By mid-2026, annual primer production is expected to increase to around 1.2 to 1.4 billion.
Some other notable D&M projects that serve the U.S. retail market include: Palmetto State Armory’s American Ammunition Co. primer and ammunition factory based in Columbia, S.C., which produces 350 to 450 million rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition annually; Grind Hard Ammunition based in Stuart, Fla., with 80 million specialty rounds; a soon-to-be-completed primer line for Grind Hard; and Longhorn Ammunition, owned by Staccato firearms and based in Florence, Texas, which produces 9 mm Luger ammunition.
Reflecting on the rapid rise of D&M, Powers said, “After I left SIG, James 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. Today, there is still a worldwide shortage of smokeless propellant, but efforts such as the WRE facility—the first propellant factory to be built in the United States in over 50 years—are important steps to ensure that D&M customers have a steady source of ammunition, primers and propellants in the years ahead.” dmholding.com
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