Goodbrand & Co Ltd was established in around 1876 as Goodbrand & Holland, a partnership between Walter Goodbrand and Thomas Eccles Holland. The original company is listed in the 1876 edition of Slater's trade directory at 20 Market Place and Victoria Works, Dutton Street, operating as engineers, machinists, mill wrights, brass finishers, mill and machine furnishers, makers of testing machines for cotton, silk, flax, etc. By 1879, the office had relocated to 29 Market Street.

The company exhibited at the 1887 Royal Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester under the name Goodbrand & Co, and from this time to the partnership being dissolved, the company seems to have operated under both the Goodbrand & Holland and the Goodbrand & Co names.

By 1895, the company had moved to the Southall Ironworks, Southall Street, in the Strangeways area of Manchester, with an office at 28 Market Street, and had expanded to include Milling Engineers and Pump Makers in the company description.

After the partnership with Thomas Eccles Holland was dissolved in January 1897, Walter Goodbrand continued operating under the company name Goodbrand & Co at the Southall Ironworks.

By around 1900, the works had moved to Britannia Foundry, Stalybridge, with an office maintained at 19 Victoria Street in Manchester. The company manufactured or supplied a diverse range of equipment from delicate instruments used for testing textiles to steam pumps, fuel economisers and steam engines.

The company exhibited its textile testing machinery at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.

Britannia Foundry is present on the 1934 25-inch OS Map CV.7, but absent from the 1947 6-inch OS Map CV.NE. It is presumed that the company ceased trading sometime between those dates.