Jacob's is an Irish

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

for several lines of

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

s and crackers in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The brand name is owned by the Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, part of

Valeo Foods Valeo Foods is an Irish multinational producer of branded food and beverage products. The company has a portfolio of over 50 international food brands which are sold across 90 countries globally, including Rowse Honey, Odlums, Batchelors, Jac ...

, which produces snacks for the Irish market. The brand name is used under licence by

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...

, part of Pladis and by

Mondelez International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

in Asia (which acquired Groupe Danone's biscuit division and with it, the rights to Jacob's biscuit brand in Asia).

History

The originator of the Jacob's brand name was the small biscuit bakery, W. & R. Jacob, founded in 1851 in Bridge Street,

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

, by William Beale Jacob and his brother Robert. In 1852, it moved to Bishop Street in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, 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 The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...

of 1916. Jacob's first English factory was opened in 1914 in

Aintree Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, northeast of Liverpool city centre. In 2011 the parish had a p ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 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 Tallaght ( ; , ) is a southwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The central village area was the site of a monastic settlement from at least the 8th century, which became one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres. Up to th ...

in 1973. The Liverpool factory joined Associated Biscuits in 1960, which was purchased by

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. 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 Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

. 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

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 Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

in 2007, the production and sales of Jacob's biscuits in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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 A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

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

* 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

* Twiglets Multipack * Twiglets Caddies

Cheeselets

* Cheeselets Caddies * Cheeselets 125g

Mallow biscuits

* Mikado, featuring

marshmallow Marshmallow (, ) is a confectionery made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. This sugar confection is inspired by a medicina ...

desiccated coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

and

raspberry jam Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the meth ...

* 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 1970s and 1990s *

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

, square version of Mikado, sold during the late 1980s and early 1990s * Chocolate Mallows

Other biscuits

* Digestive * Fig Rolls during the late 1980s there were Fruity Bites, Apple Rolls in the early to mid 1990s,

Chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

version of them in the mid-1990s or a bar version in the early 2000s *

Polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

Rich Tea Rich tea is a type of sweet biscuit; the ingredients generally include wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil and malt extract. Originally called Tea Biscuits, they were developed in the 19th century in Yorkshire, England for the upper classes as a ...

Shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...

* Shortcake * Goldgrain * Crunchers * Rings * Ginger Nut * Lincoln * Marietta *

Windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

lasted for a short time in the early 1980s * Lemon Puff *

Custard cream A custard cream is a type of sandwich biscuit popular in the British Isles, and parts of the Commonwealth, filled with a creamy, custard-flavoured centre. Traditionally, the filling was buttercream (which is still used in most homemade recipes ...

* Bourbon *

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionWafer used for a

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

sandwitch

Bars

* Club Milk have a Dark, Original, Orange, Mint, White Chocolate versions, as well as Wafer and Chunky versions * Trio * Busker (1984–1987) * Telax sold during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s

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 1970s and early 1980s A German professor visits South America to explain in a series of adverts for chocolate biscuits featuring Frank Kelly,

Maureen Potter Maria Philomena Potter (3 January 1925 – 7 April 2004), known as Maureen Potter, was an Irish singer, actress, comedienne and performer. Early life Potter was born in Dublin and educated at St. Mary's school in Fairview. She had a long caree ...

featured in an 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 1980s and early 1990s a

Children of Lir The ''Children of Lir'' () is a legend from Irish mythology. It is a tale from the post-Christianisation period that mixes magical elements such as druidic wands and spells with a Christian message of Christian faith bringing freedom from su ...

cartoon featured Irish history. In 1996 a cake featured Jacob's "The Chocolate Biscuit", "Somekind Of Wonderfull" in the late 2000s.

References

External links

*
Official website
(United Kingdom) {{Huntley & Palmers United Biscuits brands Mondelez International brands Brand name snack foods Bakeries of the Republic of Ireland Bakeries of Ireland Food and drink companies of Ireland