Another comment, with some more details on how Western Powders became a pretty sizeable player in the powder biz:
The company was originally formed as a family company distributor of blasting powders/dynamite for mining. The family eventually got into distributing reloading powders. and was already distributing Hodgdon and IMR powders (which were then separate companies) in 2000 when they decided to distribute "Ramshot" powders, which they bought from Belgium and St. Marks in Florida.
For a relaively small company, they were pretty sharp about promotiion. They invited a few gun writers to try some (especially the Belgian powders) on a prairie dog shoot/factory tour, but unlike bigger companies couldn't pay travel expenses. But they would provide all expenses once the writers got to Miles City, and provide handloaded ammo for the PD shoot. As a result, all the writers who attended lived pretty close to Miles City--including me, as it's about a 6-hour drive.
The handloaded ammo worked very well, and I picked up samples of the powder while there. After testing it thoroughly over the next year (including shooting various handloads at both "normal" temperatures and at zero Fahrenheit), I started writing about it. The three Belgian powders then available were TAC, Big Game and Magnum (oigiinally called Big Boy, a mistake since it was too close to Big Game). They changed the name that year, and all three powders turned out to be very clean-burning (not exactly normal for spherical powders at the time) but pretty temperature-stable (VERY unusual for spherical powders at the time). So I started using them for more hunting, which eventually included animals from prairie dogs to moose, and reported on my results.
Several other writers did as well, and soon they started selling pretty well--enough that Western could pay ALL expenses for more writers to attend the annual PD shoot. They also started expanding their pressure-testing lab, to the point where they did testing for some other companies, including a major bullet manufacturer. They also acquired the rights to the Accurate Arms name, and started having those powders made to their specs.
But it took 20 years (and a major financial investment) to build the business up to the point where Hodgdon became interested enough to acquire Western Powders--which evidently includes not just the powder distribution facility but the pressure lab.
