Iowa Network Services Inc history

The two men began calling their operation Hyde & Vredenburg in 1933.

One of the first such entrepreneurial concepts – employee bonuses – was introduced in 1936 and endures to this day.

On January 1, 1938 the partners and 14 others incorporated 15 Iowa and Missouri stores as Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc.

In 1941 Hyde & Vredenburg had sales of $2 million.

By 1948 Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc. had a transportation division of 22 tractor-trailer trucks.

Co-founders Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg retired in 1949; David Vredenburg died later that year.

In 1952 a contest was held to rename the stores which were operating under the names of “Supply Store” or “Service Store,” preceded by the name of the town.

The data processing department (now called the information technology department) opened in 1954, which marked the beginning of the increasing importance of new technology.

Private label products using the name Hy-Vee name and Regal trading stamps were introduced in 1956.

In 1957 the first in-store bakery opened, the first of many in-store departments to serve customer needs and provide a one-stop shopping experience.

The first store in a metropolitan area, in Johnston, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines, opened in 1959.

The Employees' Trust Fund was established in 1960, enabling all eligible employees to share in the ownership of the company.

Hy-Vee began advertising on television in 1961, the same year the company bought its first computer system.

In 1963 stockholders approved a corporate name change to Hy-Vee Food Stores Inc. and Hy-Vee introduced its second logo, a stylized shopping cart.

In 1969 Hy-Vee added a drugstore operation when it opened its first Drug Town.

Dwight Vredenburg was elected the first chief executive officer and chairman of the board in 1978.

In the early 1980's, Bill Knapp, then chairman, realized real estate companies, especially those in development, had to have access to more financial resources.

1982 was the first billion dollar sales year for Hy-Vee.

In 1984 Hy-Vee made national news when it became the second store in the nation to offer customers the use of a debit card to pay for their purchases.

The first combination food and drug store – referred to in the industry as a combo store - opened in 1985 at Lincoln, Nebraska on Old Cheney Road.

Hy-Vee began operations in its seventh state, Kansas, in 1988 with the opening of a store in Overland Park.

Also in 1989, the company's first history book, The Family of Hy-Vee, was published and the first free-standing floral department opened.

Lomar Distributing, Inc. became a part of Hy-Vee in 1990 to provide specialty and gourmet imported items to both Hy-Vee stores and other businesses.

In 1991 Hy-Vee became the largest private employer in the state of Iowa, a distinction still held today.

Also in 1992, Florist Distributing Inc. was acquired to provide fresh flowers, plants and decorative items.

Beginning in 1993, the company acquired Byers & Happel in Cedar Rapids and Carol Jones, Realtors of Springfield, Missouri.

ICN became a State agency in 1994 and the Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission (ITTC) was established by the Legislature as the ICN's governing body.

Hy-Vee Weitz Construction, L.C. was formed in 1995 to serve as general contractor for Hy-Vee Inc.

In 1998 the corporation reached $3 billion in sales and the Employees' Trust Fund was reorganized into the Employees' Profit-Sharing Trust Fund and 401(k) Plan.

In 2000 the profit-sharing plan was renamed the Hy-Vee and Affiliates Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plan.

HealthMarket private-label products were introduced in 2001.

Wide area network (WAN) Ethernet service was offered beginning in 2003, allowing customers to share software and equipment at little cost compared to frame relay and dedicated circuits.

Opening in 2004 was Hy-Vee Hall, the convention/event center part of the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines, for which Hy-Vee had purchased the naming rights.

ICN started deploying core 10 Gbps switches in 2006, using MPLS. The ICN also started deploying a core router network shortly afterward.

Beginning in 2007, Hy-Vee has sponsored the richest purse in triathlon history with the Hy-Vee World Cup Triathlon, held in summer in the Des Moines area.

INS, now Aureon, has been on a buying spree since 2008 when it acquired technology provider Alliance Technologies.

In 2009, Hy-Vee moved into its eighth state of operations when the store in Madison, Wisconsin, opened.

The receipt of a BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Program) grant expedited this migration for the transport to move from ATM to MPLS. The majority of the aggregation sites and edge sites were converted when the BTOP grant ended 6/30/2013.

In February 2014, Hy-Vee announced the acquisition of specialty pharmacy solutions provider, Amber Pharmacy, based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Subsidiaries also made their own purchases, such as when Merit Resources acquired Portico Staffing in 2015.