Iwan Simonis, founded in 1680 in Verviers, Belgium, is one of the oldest and experienced billiards companies. It got its name in 1769 from Jaques Joseph Simonis using his son's name. An English engineer, William Cockerill, met a Simonis weaver in Hamburg and signed an exclusive contract for building looms for Simonis, revolutionizing cloth production in Europe. The first machine was named "AU Chat". In 2016, Peltzer & Fils, a German cloth manufacturer from Stolberg, acquired Simonis along with top brands Saluc - Aramith Balls and WSP Textiles, owner of "Strachan" cloth brand, resulting in a strong monopoly.