Holmach Ltd. has a long established history. Its founder, Peter Holland, joined Mitchell Engineering in 1948 as a design engineer in the fledgling hydrostatic steriliser manufacturing division. In 1966, Peter Holland left Mitchell Engineering to found Peter Holland Ltd, which offered maintenance solutions for existing hydrostatic steriliser installations. Given the boom in the market for retailed frozen vegetables in the late sixties, the business also sold and serviced vegetable processing equipment, the basic design of which is still being used today. During this time Peter began to work as a free-lance hydrostatic steriliser designer for Mather & Platt Engineering, who sold a number of these machines until around 1972, at which point the market began to turn to batch retorts.

Peter Holland Ltd diversified into new market areas in 1974, with the business sector concerning food processing being concentrated into Peter Holland (Food Machinery) Ltd. 

In 2000, Chris decided to buy the business from the parent company, which was renamed Holmach and adopted the familiar cog and windmill symbol. Together with his wife Niki, the pair concentrated on raising the profile of thermal processing technologies to produce better products. Holmach has since done pioneering work in food processing such as with refrigerated processed foods of extended durability (REPFEDs) and in introducing retort technology to the “slow cooked” meat processing industry. Now the company operates from its Stamford offices in Lincolnshire, with a small but perfectly formed team managing sales and solutions consultancy for thermal processing technology.