Smith & Loveless reached it's 80th year milestone in 2026, and looking back its an ongoing story of product innovation and expansion that has helped profoundly shape the water and infrastructure industry today. Smith & Loveless is not only proud of its legacy but how its currently positioned for another 80 years and more. Companies in this industry have come and gone and been bought and sold, but S&L has remained a stable force throughout, helping to deliver equipment designed to deliver long-lasting performance and making O&M easier, safer, and lest costly.
In the Beginning: 1946-1959
B. Alden Smith and Compere Loveless founded Smith & Loveless Inc. in 1946 as a sales engineering firm representing several manufacturers in the wastewater industry. Early in their association, Smith & Loveless recognized the need and opportunity for complete, factory-built pump stations. In 1948, the first three underground pump stations were built for the City of Salina, Kansas, which are still in operation today. These units were fabricated in a converted barn less than three miles from the present world headquarters location. Their pump station pioneering efforts led to additional innovation, including the creation of the vertical, close-coupled solids-handing centrifugal pump v designed exclusively for sewage transfer in 1954. Later, the company developed packaged treatment plants as a way to support the burgeoning growth and requisite infrastructure needs of the baby boom era, especially in private developments.
Sales increased rapidly in the 1950s, and within a short time, Smith & Loveless maintained distribution throughout the United States and Canada and licensed technology worldwide. Because of this rapid growth, it was necessary to expand the manufacturing plant five times in a four-year period. Smith & Loveless moved its present world headquarters and primary manufacturing facility to Lenexa, Kan., a Kansas City suburb in 1958. The present-day plant covers more than 125,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space.
Corporate Division: 1959 - 1981
In 1959, Smith & Loveless was acquired by conglomerate Union Tank Car of Lincolnshire, Ill (later known as Trans Union). While the acquisition complemented markets served by other divisions of that firm, it marked a period when additional capital for expansion and research and development ensured Smith & Loveless’ leadership in the wastewater industry. It was during this time that Smith & Loveless planned for and supported the evolution of the Clean Water Act with new technologies to equip centralized treatment plants. Smith & Loveless developed a lot of process technologies for new wastewater treatment plants including aeration equipment, clarifiers, and of course the PISTA® Grit Removal System. It also developed the unparalleled Wet Well Mounted Pump Station, the first of any pump station to have its pumps, valves and and check valve piping all at ground level -- not submerged 20 feet below.
Private Ownership and Expansion - 1981 to Current
Following a 1981 Trans Union merger with the Marmon Group, the executive management of Smith & Loveless engineered a management buyout by purchasing the company’s assets. Reborn as Smith & Loveless Inc., the newly privately held company renewed its commitment to maintain its role as a leader in the water industry. Its strategy was simple: design and manufacture quality equipment and provide superior service. It did just that, expanding its reach with above-ground pump stations, PISTA® Grit Removal Systems and its complete array of packaged and field-erected treatment plants.
Smith & Loveless expanded into newer markets through the acquisition of DI-SEP® Systems in California, a supplier of high-level separation technologies, including ion exchanges, membrane, and dual media pressure filtration systems. Smith & Loveless because a market leader in copper mining with the development of the DI-SEP® SX Filter, a filtration technology used in solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) processes at copper mines to help yield 99.99% pure copper cathodes.
In a move to both broaden Smith & Loveless Inc.’s water product line and expand into the European marketplace, Smith & Loveless Limited, an affiliated company of Smith & Loveless, Inc., acquired the majority interest in Kalsep Limited of Camberley, England on March 29, 1995. Further international expansion occurred in the late 1990s when Smith & Loveless New Zealand Ltd. obtained licenses to market and sell Smith & Loveless Inc. technology and equipment in New Zealand and Australia. In 1999, Smith & Loveless Limited – UK began to more actively market and sell Smith & Loveless, Inc. technology in the UK.
On the domestic front, Smith & Loveless Georgia Inc. was formed in 2000. This allows the Company to provide superior pump station sales and service for its Georgia customers. Ever growing and advancing, Smith & Loveless purchased the assets of the BIOMIXER Corporation of California in 2003 to obtain innovative aeration and mixing technology. Then, in 2015, S&L acquired SCHLOSS Engineered Equipment, of Aurora, Colo. The move further enhanced S&L's comprehensive line of headworks and wastewater treatment equipment.
In 2024, Smith & Loveless launched Smith & Loveless Australia Pty., Ltd., establishing its Australian headquarters in Adelaide. The following year S&L AU acquired the assets of longtime partner CST Wastewater Solutions, which included a complete variety of advanced fine screening technologies popular throughout Australia and New Zealand. To further support the growth of these CST Screening System technologies, S&L Australia set up a second sales office in the Sydney area, complete with parts and service support.
Smith & Loveless actively pursues the patents of its inventions. The Company currently owns more than 75 active U.S. patents, holds foreign patents in 15 different countries, and more than 50 domestic and foreign trademarks. Smith & Loveless is actively engaged in R&D. Smith & Loveless’ approach to research and development is both the search for new applications of existing product lines, as well as development of completely new concepts. Through these efforts, Smith & Loveless has been able to enter previously untapped markets. Today, the company maintains offices domestically in metropolitan Kansas City, Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta, and internationally in the United Kingdom, India, Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Today, with more than 175,000 square feet of domestic manufacturing facilities, 80 years of experience and innovation, installations on all seven continents and in more than 75 countries globally, Smith & Loveless is proud to support the water and wastewater infrastructure needs of the world. It's our commitment to Protecting Water. Protecting People.™