 The Boyertown-Smith connection was forged in the late 1950s, when Smith's managing director was in the United States to explore a partnership with William and James Conway (owners of Mister Softee, whose mobile ice-cream trucks were built by Boyertown).Smith obtained the United Kingdom rights to the Mister Softee brand from the Conways, and began producing Mister Softee electric ice-cream floats in 1959 in partnership with J. Lyons & Co. subsidiary Glacier Foods.The Smith family approached the firm with the Battronic proposal in 1962.