William Kendall, a draughtsman, and George Gent, a fitter, formed a business in 1847 to manufacture gas burners. Their factory was originally located in in premises adjacent to the recently completed London Road Station, Manchester.

The company prospered and soon branched out into other areas of manufacturing. An 1857 trade directory refers to the company as manufacturers of engineering tools, including drills, cutters and lathe tools. To accommodate the expanding business, the company opened a new factory in 1863 at Victoria Works, Springfield Lane, Salford. The company specialised in machine tool manufacture. George Gent died in 1873 but the business continued under the Kendall & Gent name.

Further expansion of the business led to Kendall & Gent building a second new works on a site in Gorton, Manchester. The new works, also named Victoria Works, opened in 1897.

The company continued to expand on the Gorton site, especially during the First World War when demand for machine tools increased dramatically. Kendall & Gent were one of the founder members of the Associated British Machine Tool Makers, established in 1917.

The company underwent a reorganisation in 1920 and became a public limited company under F.C. Mosley, who became Chairman and Managing Director of the new company. The company underwent further expansion and new bays were added to the existing buildings between 1938 and 1956.

In 1959 the shareholders of the company were approached by W. E. Sykes Limited to either sell to or swap the shares they owned for W. E. Sykes Ltd non-voting shares, as Sykes wanted to gain a controlling interest in Kendall & Gent. They were successful, and Kendall & Gent became an associated company of W. E. Sykes Limited in the same year.

In 1966 Staveley Industries acquired Kendall & Gent. In 1966 Staveley Industries acquired Kendall & Gent.