OUR HISTORY

From local dive shop to Top 50 Government Contractor.

In 1979, Mike Hillier Senior founded Lynnhaven Dive Center (LDC), a local dive shop offering SCUBA diving training and commercial dive equipment locally in Virginia Beach.  For nearly two decades, LDC developed relationships with local Federal Government customers through its work with Navy SEAL teams and specialized Federal dive units in the Virginia Beach area.

A Vision of Something Greater

In 1997 Luke Hillier, son of the company founder, returned to the family business bringing with him significant government contracting and capital investment expertise. But most importantly, Luke brought a vision of something greater for the dive shop. Under Luke’s direction, an offshoot of LDC was created with a specific focus on serving the unique needs of government customers – Atlantic Diving Supply (ADS) was born.

While ADS was rooted in serving the local military diving community, Luke believed that the opportunity for us to provide solutions to customers’ challenges expanded well beyond diving equipment and far beyond the local community. By talking to customers and striving to truly understand their mission challenges, we became increasingly committed to a singular belief.  We knew that our product expertise and personalized solutions could be applied to a broader spectrum of products that would significantly increase our legendary customer service to existing military customers as well as others across the defense industry.

Paving the Way for Future Growth

In 2000, ADS was awarded our first major contract from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) as a prime vendor for marine lifesaving, diving, and search and rescue equipment.  This contract afforded ADS a new level of credence in conducting business with the Federal Government and paved the way for our continued growth.

From day one, we have focused on expanding our product-based solutions to support a wide range of military and first responder applications. Today, ADS holds more than 50 Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) and has grown to be a top 5 DLA Supplier and Top 50 Federal Government Contractor.

Defense Logistics Agency Recognition

As America’s combat logistics support agency, the Defense Logistics Agency provides the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, other federal agencies and partner nation armed forces with a full spectrum of logistics, acquisition and technical services.