Henry Simon Ltd was established in 1878 and had head offices on 20 Mount Street, Manchester as well as works in Cheadle Heath, Stockport, Stalybridge, Liverpool and Sydney, Australia. The company made granary equipment, mechanical and pneumatic handling plant for grain and coal, and elevators and conveyors for all purposes, selling to companies worldwide. The company's pneumatic plants were installed at ports, flour mills, power stations, gas works, factories and breweries. Henry SimonLtd became established in the Far East as the leading British firm of rice milling engineers and equipped mills in Myanmar (then known as Burma) and in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (then named French Indo-China).

The company's founder, Polish engineer Henry Gustav Simon, had developed the first roller milling machine for grinding grain in 1878. In 1881 the company built the first completely automatic roller flour mill in the world for McDougall Brothers. The 'Simon System' offered huge advantages over existing techniques, and within 15 years Henry Simon Ltd had over 400 mills in operation using this system in the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, India, South America, Australia and Japan. Initially, Henry Simon equipment was manufactured in Europe, to Simon's designs.

In 1897 Henry Simon Ltd became a private limited company. The company's founder died not longer afterwards, in 1899.

The company opened its first UK factory in 1902, at the Eagle Ironworks in Stalybridge. Expansion continued in 1915, when Henry Simon Ltd acquired the milling engineering business and factory of Briddon and Fowler in Bredbury, Cheshire. In 1926 the company united its headquarters and factories at purpose-built premises in Cheadle Heath, Stockport.

A further acquisition followed in 1933, when the company bought Turbine Gears. The company would continue to grow for over a century.

In 1960 the two parent companies of Simon Engineering Group, Simon Carves Ltd and Henry Simon (Holdings) Ltd, merged, forming Simon Engineering Ltd.

The 1980s saw another significant merger, when Henry Simon Ltd and another long-established cereal milling business, Thomas Robinson and Son, joined forces in October 1988 to become Robinson Milling Systems Ltd. In 1991 the business was acquired by the Japanese firm, Satake Corporation, to form Satake Robinson UK Ltd, later Satake UK Ltd.

Satake made the decision to form a UK Division, which moved, together with ESM (UK), to Bredbury in 1998.