Stork Technical Services enjoys a rich entrepreneurial history tracing back to the early 1800s, when a schoolboy named Charles Theodoor Stork visited a steam-powered textile mill in Enschede. 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 years of success, Mr. Stork realized that no one was specializing in textile machine-building industry. In May of 1859, relying on the spirit of innovation that was the foundation of his company, he opened a modest forge and repair shop in the village of Borne, near Hengelo. He then joined other textile manufacturers to campaign for railway lines allowing ease of access for product delivery from his manufacturing site to geographically remote customer locations. Charles Stork and his colleagues then opened Stork Brothers & Company Engineering Works in Hengelo on September 4, 1868.