Jacob's

For other uses of "Jacobs", see Jacobs (disambiguation).

Jacob's is an Irish brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The brand name is owned by the Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, part of Valeo Foods, which produces snacks for the Irish market. The brand name is used under licence by United Biscuits, part of Pladis and by Mondelez International in Asia (which acquired Groupe Danone's biscuit division and with it, the rights to Jacob's biscuit brand in Asia).

Jacob's "1885" registered trademark used on several lines of biscuits

Jacob's cream crackers

History

View of the production floor, Jacob's Ireland factory, 1910

The originator of the Jacob's brand name was the small biscuit bakery, W. & R. Jacob, founded in 1851 in Bridge Street, Waterford, Ireland, by William Beale Jacob and his brother Robert. In 1852, it moved to Bishop Street in Dublin, Ireland, with a factory in Peter's Row. Jacob's Bishop Street premises was one of several prominent Dublin buildings occupied by rebels during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Jacob's first English factory was opened in 1914 in Aintree, Liverpool, and remains the primary producer of Jacob's products in the UK, including Cream Crackers and Twiglets.

In 1922, a separate English company was formed, W. & R. Jacob (L'pool) Ltd. The two branches separated, with the Dublin branch retaining the W. & R. Jacob name while the Liverpool branch was renamed Jacob's Bakery Ltd. In 1966, W. & R. Jacob in Dublin merged with Boland's Biscuits to form Irish Biscuits Ltd. and moved to a factory in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght in 1973. The Liverpool factory joined Associated Biscuits in 1960, which was purchased by Nabisco in 1982.

In 1990, the two companies once again came under common ownership and became Jacob's Biscuit Group when they were acquired by the French company Groupe Danone. In July 2004, Groupe Danone and United Biscuits announced that they had made an agreement for the latter to acquire Jacob's Biscuit Group. However, only days later, Groupe Danone, United Biscuits, and Fruitfield Foods announced that Jacob's Biscuit Group would be split, with United Biscuits acquiring only the UK portion of the Group and Fruitfield Foods acquiring Ireland portion. Fruitfield Foods was subsequently renamed the Jacob Fruitfield Food Group and is now part of the Valeo Food Group. Valeo Foods was established in September 2010 through the merger of Batchelors and Origin Foods. In the meantime, Groupe Danone retained Jacob's brand ownership in Asia with manufacturing facility in Malaysia.

Since their acquisitions, United Biscuits and Jacob Fruitfield Food Group have been in a legal dispute over the use of the Jacob's brand name.

With the acquisition of Groupe Danone's biscuit division by Kraft Foods in 2007, the production and sales of Jacob's biscuits in Malaysia is undertaken by Mondelez Malaysia.

As of 2015, the Aintree factory produced over 55,000 tonnes of products each year, and as of 2022 4,000 tonnes of crackers are produced annually at the factory. In 2015, it received a £10 million investment from United Biscuits to further boost output.

Industrial relations

The activist and trade union organiser Rosie Hackett worked for some years as a messenger for Jacob's. At that time the working conditions in the factory were poor. On 22 August 1911 Hackett helped organise the withdrawal of women's labour in Jacob's factory to support their male colleagues who were already on strike. With the women's help, the men secured better working conditions and a pay rise. Two weeks later, at the age of eighteen, Hackett co-founded the Irish Women Worker's Union (IWWU) with Delia Larkin. During the 1913 Lockout Hackett helped mobilise the Jacob's workers to come out in solidarity with other workers, they in turn were locked out by their own employers. In 1914 her Jacob's employers sacked her over her role in the Lockout.

In 2009, after 156 years of making biscuits in Ireland, Jacob Fruitfield shut its Tallaght plant. 220 jobs were lost while the company retained around 100 staff in a variety of roles.

In November 2022, workers at the Aintree factory went on strike after pay negotiations with management since September of that year failed to reach an agreement, and the company temporarily shifted production to Portugal. Staff at the factory are supported in the ongoing strike by the GMB union.

Products

Toppable crackers

• Cream Crackers
• Biscuits For Cheese
• Savoury Favourites
• Flatbreads
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Mixed Seeds
• Crispbreads
  • Chive
  • Mixed Seed
  • Mixed Grain
• Ciabatta
  • Sundried Tomato & Basil
  • Original
• Krackawheat
• Choice Grain
• Sourdough
• Butter Puffs
• Cornish Wafers
• High Fibre

Snackable crackers

• Savours
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Sour Cream & Chive
  • Cheese
  • Sweet Chilli
• Cheddars
  • Pickle
  • Cheese
  • Smoky BBQ

Mini Cheddars

Main article: Mini Cheddars

• Mini Cheddars Original 6 Pack
• Mini Cheddars Red Leicester 6 Pack
• Mini Cheddars Smoky BBQ 6 Pack
• Mini Cheddars Nacho Cheese & Jalapeño
• Mini Cheddars Chipotle Chicken Wings
• Mini Cheddars Lime & Chilli
• Mini Cheddars Strathdon Blue Cheese
• Mini Cheddars Dragon's Breath Chilli Cheddar
• Mini Cheddars Ploughman's Cheshire Cheese

Mini Cheddars Sticks

• Rich & Tangy Cheddar
• Grilled Cheddar & Sizzling Steak

Cracker Crisps

• Salt & Vinegar
• Sour Cream & Chive
• Sour Cream & Chive Caddies

Bites

• Red Leicester
• Mature Cheddar & Caramelised Onion
• Smoked Paprika
• Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream

Crinklys

• Variety Pack (6 Pack including 2 × Cheese & Onion, 2 × Chilli Beef and 2 × Salt & Vinegar)
• Cheese & Onion 6 Pack

Twiglets

Main article: Twiglets

• Twiglets Multipack
• Twiglets Caddies

Cheeselets

• Cheeselets Caddies
• Cheeselets 125g

Mallow biscuits

• Mikado, featuring marshmallow, desiccated coconut and raspberry jam.
• Kimberley, ginger flavour biscuits sandwiching a mallow center which has a coarse sugar crystal coating.
• Elite, a chocolate-enrobed Mikado.
• Coconut cream, biscuits with a Pink and White a mallow center and a desiccated coconut coating.
• X's & O's, sold in phases during the 1970's and 1990's.
• Camelot, square version of Mikado, sold during the late 1980's and early 1990's.
• Chocolate Mallows.

Other biscuits

• Digestive.
• Fig Rolls during the late 1980's there were Fruity Bites, Apple Rolls in the early to mid 1990's, Chocolate version of them in the mid 1990's or a bar version in the early 2000's.
• Polo.
• Rich Tea.
• Shortbread.
• Shortcake.
• Goldgrain.
• Crunchers.
• Rings.
• Ginger Nut.
• Lincoln.
• Marietta.
• Windmill lasted for a short time in the early 1980's.
• Lemon Puff.
• Custard Creams.
• Bourbon.
• Nice.

Bars

• Club Milk have a Dark, Original, Orange, Mint, White Choclate versions Wafer and Chunky versions too.
• Trio
• Busker (1984-1987).
• Telax sold during the late 1970's and most of the 1980's.

Advertising

On Irish television popular phrases were "How To Get The Fig Into The Fig Rolls", In circa 1975 An advertisement that starts with a series of people engaged in a variety of activities, while a jingle encourages taking a break with Club Milk as it’s ‘best after all’. In the late 1970's and early 1980's A German professor visits South America to explain in a series of adverts for chocolate biscuits featuring Frank Kelly, Maureen Potter featured in a advert for them at the same time. The professor and the South Americans disagree over the pronunciation of ‘Jacob’s. In the mid 1980's for Telax bar a space science advert was used. In the late 1980's and early 1990's "Take The Biscuit" popular series of adverts, Chocolate Collection 1992 song called "It's The Same Chocolate With A Different Biscuit Under It", When Camelot biscuits existed in the late 1980's and early 1990's a Children of Lir cartoon featured Irish history. In 1996 a cake featured Jacob's "The Chocolate Biscuit", "Somekind Of Wonderfull" in the late 2000's.

See also

• Jacob's Awards

Further reading

• National Archives of Ireland article "Jacob's Biscuit Factory, 1916"

External links

• Official website
• Official website Archived 8 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine (United Kingdom)