Still trading today (2024) with great success as the Precision Technologies Group, John Holroyd founded his engineering, machine tool and textile machinery manufacturing business in Manchester, England, in 1860. His range of products was vast and included milling, tapping, screw-making and finishing and polishing machines, drilling machines, tool and cutter grinders, lathes, cutters for gear wheels, twist drills, internal and external gauges, thread milling and grinding machines, gears, chucks, machine vices, taps and dies, engineers and machinists tools and even "electroplating in silver and nickel"
By 1897, he had invented a highly accurate thread milling process and patented the first machine of its kind. A year later the Company, by now called 'John Holroyd & Co.", had moved into much larger premises in Rochdale, Greater Manchester - a town where they are still based today.