The foundation of Stork
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On 4 September 1868, the foundations were laid in Hengelo, the Netherlands, for the many activities that, taking the name of their founder, would be developed under the Stork flag. This is an excellent reason to take a closer look at the formation of our company base which was in many respects unique, and forms the most important 'blood group' of today's Stork. From textile- to machine building factory When schoolboy Charles Theodoor Stork visited a steam-powered textile mill in Enschede in 1835, he knew what he wanted to be: a textile manufacturer. When he left school, he bought three looms with money he had borrowed from his father, to start the Weefgoederenfabriek C.T. Stork & Co. (C.T. Stork & Co. woven goods factory). At 13, he was the youngest entrepreneur in the Netherlands, which still earns him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. . After a difficult start, business was soon booming - thanks in part to his foreign trips. In 1859, at the age of 37, Charles had earned enough money with his textile mills to fulfil a boyhood dream and build a villa in Oldenzaal. But he still wondered if he had made the right decision. Competition in the textile industry was very tough, while the machine-building field was still wide open, and up to then no-one had specialised in building machines for the textile industry. On 13 May 1859 he opened a modest forge and repair shop in the village of Borne, near Hengelo. The works was moved to Hengelo in 1868, at the intersection of the Almelo - Salzbergen and Hengelo - Zutphen railway lines. It was none other than Charles himself, together with a number of textile manufacturers, who had campaigned for these lines to be built. The opening of the new works in Hengelo on 4 September 1868 is regarded as the date on which the machinefabriek Gebr. Stork & Co. (Stork Brothers & Co. engineering works) was officially opened.
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