The company was founded by "Abraham Ganz" in 1844. He was invited to Pest, Hungary, by Count István Széchenyi and became the casting master at the "Roller Mill Plant" (referred to as "Hengermalom" in Hungarian). In 1854 he began manufacturing hard cast railroad wheels in his own plant founded in 1844. He successfully developed a railway wheel casting technology; it was the new method of "crust-casting" to produce cheap yet sturdy iron railway wheels, which greatly contributed to the rapid railway development in Central Europe. 86,074 pieces of hard cast wheels had been sold to 59 European railway companies until 1866. Consequently, this factory played an important role in building the infrastructure of the Hungarian Kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At this time the agricultural machines, steam locomotives, pumps and the railway carriages were the main products. At the beginning of the 20th century, 60 to 80% of the factory's products were sold for export.