Smith Vending Company was started in 1976 by Lyle Smith in Hiawatha,
Kansas. Lyle grew his business gradually by acquiring new
customer business by offering a Quality Product at a Fair Price. A few
years later his brother, Don Smith, joined him and with a Tom's Foods
Franchise they quickly grew their business into several routes covering
Northeast Kansas, Southeast Nebraska, and Northeast Missouri. During the
80's, the business declined and Don left the business. In 1988,
Rod Nester was hired by Lyle to replace his four part time employees and
to run all the routes. In 1989, they began to aggressively expand the
vending portion of the business. In the fall of 1989, they
expanded into Maryville and the new division was created. Rod moved his
family to Maryville, MO and then just a year later moved them into
Clarinda, Iowa, where the "Iowa Division" was established. Throughout
the 90's, six routes were established, a new warehouse was erected, a
commissary was built, and by 1995 over 60% of the Smith Vending business
was conducted from the Iowa Division.
After 20 years of developing,
operating, and managing Lyle's Iowa Division, Rod purchased it from him
on January 1, 2008. Thus the creation of Smith Vending Corporation. In
October of 2008, Bob Andrews with Canteen Franchise Group approached
Rod about becoming a Canteen Franchise. So on January 1, 2009, we
became a Canteen franchise.
In 2011, Ashilyn and Tyler both completed their full time education and joined the company full time. Ashilyn is currently the Clarinda General Manager and Tyler is the Denison General Manager. Rod, Ashilyn, & Tyler continue to own and operate the
operations in Clarinda & Denison today and practice the Smith Vending Vision of Quality Products, Fair Prices, with Excellent Service.
