User:Gjacob85/M. Jacob and Sons

M. Jacob and Sons is a bottle distribution company with a long history in Detroit. It was started by Max Jacob in 1885 as the M. Jacob Company. When Max’s sons entered the business, it was renamed M. Jacob and Sons to signify the development of the company and the family. Of Max’s sons William, the eldest, was a salesman; Sam spent a few years driving the horse-drawn delivery wagon; and Ben was the family bookkeeper and cashier. When the company first began, glass bottles were hand-blown and expensive. Max believed he could make a living by collecting used bottles and reselling them to breweries and other users. He was not the only entrepreneur to have this idea as there were many bottle peddlers in Detroit at the turn of the century. Despite the competition, Max Jacob was able to provide a quality service that made him the “King of Used Bottles” in Detroit. In 1915 Max built a two-story, Italianate villa in the heart of midtown Detroit. The house, one of the last few surviving of its kind, is now part of the Wayne State University campus and home to the president of the university. Advances in technology had made affordable, mass-produced glass bottles widely available. In 1921 M. Jacob and Sons reinvented itself. By building relationships with the nation’s leading bottle manufacturers, the company was able to serve as a distributor between the manufacturers and numerous local beverage companies. The company found a new niche to capitalize on in 1963 as the development of plastics was coming into commercial use. Because glass was still costly, the minds at M. Jacob and Sons took yet another new opportunity to get into an emerging facet of bottle distribution. In 1982 the company was again revitalized with the addition of Sprayco, the company’s consumers division. Sprayco specializes in spray bottles and travel products for the retail market. Four generations of the Jacob family have led M. Jacob and Sons. Current President Marty Jacob, Ben’s son, started his career in the warehouse and spent seven years as a shipping clerk. Then he moved on to purchasing, then sales and ultimately to the head of the company. M. Jacob and Sons has grown to have several locations across the country. It was one of the first suppliers to the Amway Corporation, one of the first companies in America to recycle bottles, and one of the first to use plastic bottles.