Jacob's Club

Jacob’s Club, or just Club, is a popular biscuit originating in Ireland, but now widespread in popularity and sales throughout Britain and Ireland.

Origins

W & R Jacob and Company originally produced the ‘’Club Milk’’ biscuit in Ireland, production commencing just before the outbreak of the First World War, at their Dublin factory.^[1] It quickly became a popular brand across the country. The confection consisted of two marie type plain biscuits, attached together by a sandwich filling of cocoa cream, and then covered in thick milk chocolate. Each bar was wrapped in foil, and then further wrapped in a paper outer wrapping.

Name

Jacob’s originally used images of playing cards from the Club suit to illustrate and to advertise the new biscuit. The “Club” name was therefore a reference to this suit.

Development in Great Britain

It is unclear exactly when Club Milk biscuits were first imported to England, a process which probably began informally owing to the trade route between Ireland and the English port of Liverpool. Jacob’s had already established a factory in Liverpool in 1914, and subsequently began producing the Club Milk there.

In 1970 the Irish and British parts of the Jacob’s company split into two firms. The Club biscuit had by this time become popular throughout Great Britain, and was marketed in five varieties. The original Club Milk (made with milk chocolate) was joined by a Club Plain (made with plain chocolate). The term “Club” was expanded for this new product, with a golf ball used to illustrate the wrapper, rather than the Club suit of cards. Two flavoured versions, Club Orange and Club Mint, were made by adding flavouring to the cocoa cream. The fifth variant was Club Fruit, made by adding raisins to the cocoa cream between the two biscuits.

From the late 1980s into the 1990s Jacob’s used the advertising slogan “If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club”. This was set to music, and used as a theme in television advertising campaigns during these same decades.^[2] In 2012 the jingle was voted by British adults to be "the seventh catchiest jingle of all time".^[3]

From (1991- 1995) Jacob's Club Class was available in 3 versions.

Changes of ownership

Danone

In the mid 1990s both the Irish and British Jacob’s companies were acquired by French-owned Groupe Danone who redesigned both the biscuit and the packaging.^[1] The two biscuits held together by cocoa cream were replaced with a single biscuit, topped with cocoa cream. The real chocolate exterior was replaced with a thinner layer of chocolate-based coating.^[4] The original milk and plain biscuits were discontinued, whilst the flavoured varieties were repackaged in cellophane flow pack.

United Biscuits

In September 2004 the Jacob’s brand was sold by Danone to British-based United Biscuits, who have restored some of the traditional elements of the Club biscuit, including the two-layer packaging, with an inner foil wrapper, and an outer paper wrapper. At present they have not returned to the double-biscuit structure of the bar itself. The Irish part of the company was sold to Fruitfield Foods, to form Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, which has led to legal battles over the use of the Jacob's brand name.

Recently over the last year the name of Jacob's has been removed from the packaging of Club and replaced with Mcvities. This is part of a major re-branding by United Biscuits to move their savory products under the Jacobs brand and sweet products under McVities.^[5]

UK variations

Irish production resumed

Without current resolution of the dispute between United Biscuits (UK) and Fruitfield (Ireland) over the use of the Jacob's brand, the Irish company has again resumed production of the Club Milk bar. However, it has returned to the original pattern, with two biscuits joined by cocoa cream, and a thick covering of real milk chocolate. Subsequently plain and wafer versions have also been produced. These products are currently available only in the Republic of Ireland. The Irish company makes reference to the UK version of the biscuit in its promotion of the Irish Club Milk, by stating "forget any poor imitations", before outlining the original features of the biscuit as now produced in Ireland.^[8]

During the late 1980s & early 1990s an TV advert using the slogan "Going to have a cuppa have a club" was used of course. In the late 1990s the Andy Williams song Music To Watch Girls By was used. There were many adverts for Jacob's Club Milk on Television since 1961.

References