Jacob's

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. It later moved to Bishop Street in Dublin, Ireland, with a factory in Peter's Row. A factory in Aintree, Liverpool was opened in 1914.

Jacob's Bishop Street premises was one of several prominent Dublin buildings occupied by rebels during the Easter Rising of 1916

In 1922 a separate English company was formed, W & R Jacob (L'pool) Ltd.[1] 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 the 1970s, W & R Jacob in Dublin merged with Boland's Biscuits to form Irish Biscuits Ltd. and moved to Tallaght, Ireland. The Liverpool factory joined Associated Biscuits in 1960, which was purchased by Nabisco in 1982.[2]

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.[3][4] With the acquisition of Groupe Danone's biscuit division by Kraft Foods, the production and sales of Jacob's biscuits in Malaysia are done through Kraft Foods Malaysia. However, only days later the 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 the Irish portion.[5][6][7] 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.[8]

Since their acquisitions, United Biscuits and Jacob Fruitfield Food Group have sparred in court over the use of the Jacob's brand name.[9][10]

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.[11]

The well-known activist and trade union organizer 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 organize the withdrawal of women's labor 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 mobilize 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.[12]

The Aintree site, which opened in 1914, was Jacob's first English factory, and remains the primary producer of Jacob's products in the UK, including Cream Crackers and Twiglets.[13] The factory produces over 55,000 tonnes of products each year and, in 2015, received a £10 million investment from United Biscuits to further boost output.

• Jacob's Awards

• Jacob's Biscuits Ireland official website
• Jacob's brand on Valeo Food Group official web site
• Jacob's brand on United Biscuits official web site
• Jacob's Crackers (United Biscuits) official web site
• Groupe Danone official web site
• National Archives of Ireland article "Jacob's Biscuit Factory, 1916"
• "Rosie Hackett and the Union Women of Jacob's Biscuits"
• "Jacob's ends production after 156 years"