Yarbrough Industries was founded in 1946 by Leonard and Norma Yarbrough. Leonard was a farmer who worked on cars and trucks in his garage, soon realizing that welding and machining parts was a need and teaching himself those skills to help out his neighbors and reduce his own personal costs.  The business began to grow and by the mid 1950’s, they had to move to an official shop. 

Around the same time, Leonard and Norma’s son became the fourth employee. Meanwhile, their daughter was falling for another employee, Gary Reynaud. They married, started a family and decided to purchase the company in 1970. They moved to their current location in 1971, focusing on building the reputation and doubling the floor space by 1979. In 1983, they expanded again, this time adding equipment and bringing the number of employees up to eighteen. 

As he applied his entrepreneurial spirit and no-formal-education intellect, he invented and patented the Pal-O-Matic pallet dispenser in 1985. The immediate success of the machine made it necessary to purchase another building and add ten more employees. In 1986, Gary’s son, Rusty graduated from UMR with a Mechanical Engineering Degree and joined the business full time. They chose to expand once more, seeing the unmet need for hydraulic services and parts in the community. They purchased the building next door, acquired an Eaton Dealership and created a space solely dedicated to sales and service. As the years passed, they continued to add product lines, machinery and personnel, expanding now to forty-two employees.