Simons, Jacobs, & Co.

SIMONS, JACOBS, & Co., Fruit Importers, 93 and 95, Candleriggs, Glasgow (and at London, Liverpool, and New York).

    There are, in our great industrial centres, certain firms which, by reason of the vastness of their operations and the cosmopolitan character of their connections, stand out as separate and distinct factors in the particular departments of industry with which they are identified. Just as there is only one Fairfield Shipbuilding Yard in the world, just as there is nothing in relation to armaments at all comparable to the Tyne-side establishment universally known as “Armstrong’s”, so, in the fruit trade, with its manifold sources of supply and output, there is no firm in the world that can, as regards diversity of operations, bear a moment’s comparison with the great concern which forms the subject of the present brief sketch. Its “fame has indeed gone forth into all lands, and the noise of its celebrity into the ends of the earth”.

    The firm, which has its centre in the “City by the Clyde”, was founded half a century ago in premises not far removed from the majestic block which the enterprise and wealth of the house have erected within recent years for the more adequate carrying-on of the gigantic business in which the firm is engaged. The structure occupied comprises a magnificent block, the dimensions and area of which will best be estimated from the fact that it possesses frontages in Brunswick Street and Candleriggs, the distance between them extending to 300 feet, presenting, too, a frontage of fully 100 feet to each of the streets mentioned. From the centre of this striking pile, the buildings form four sides of an oblong square and consist of five storeys and a basement so admirably arranged that, by means of an open central space, light is conveyed from the large glass-covered roof to all parts of the interior, affording thereby the utmost facilities for carrying on the operations of the house peculiar to each of the floors of the establishment.

    To still further simplify the process of speedy loading and unloading of carts, vans, and lorries, a fine cart-way passage runs through the entire centre of the building, the entrance being in Brunswick Street and the exit in Candleriggs, while every convenience that steam lifts and other accessories can supply for the loading and unloading of stock has been unstintingly provided by the far-seeing and discriminating judgment of the executive.

    It is usually understood that the goods which come under the comprehensive denomination of “fruit” are difficult to obtain pure and fresh ; yet this celebrated house, from the very day of its inception, has borne the highest reputation for the unsurpassable freshness, absolute purity, and genuineness of every article imported. Messrs. Simons, Jacobs, & Co. carry on a very extensive trade in Spanish fruits, more particularly from the South of Spain. The general supply this eminent house is, in every detail, excellent and of high class, and, in keeping it up to a recognised standard of superiority, the firm spares neither pains nor expense : the task of replenishing and re-stocking being carried out by frequent and regular consignments from all the available sources of supply known to modern civilization. The choicest products of the vegetable kingdom are contributed by Egypt, Malta, Jaffa, Valencia, and other Mediterranean ports ; America, Canada, Florida, the West Indies, and the balmy islands of the great Pacific. The business, in every detail, is conducted with consummate care and energy, and forms a leading factor in the food supply of the Empire.

    The firm has established sound mercantile relations in every part of the British dominions; and to meet the requirements of their clients, Messrs. Simons, Jacobs, & Co. possess abundant facilities for trading in the principal commercial centres of the world. The personnel of the firm at the present day is composed of the following gentlemen :— Michael Simons, Esq., Michael John Garcia, Esq., Samuel Jacobs, Esq., and Joseph H. Shuttleworth, Esq. The first-named gentleman has, in consequence of valuable services rendered to Spanish commerce, been made the recipient of the Royal Order of Isabella la Catolica, and many other honourable marks of the esteem in which he is held might be cited, did space and the circumstances permit. For instance, his membership of the Glasgow City Council and magisterial position — a prelude, we are quite confident, to the conferring, at no distant date, of the highest recognition of a citizen’s worth it is in the power of the great commercial metropolis to bestow.

    Finally, it only remains to be added that the important firm under notice, with its manifold ramifications operating in all the great centres of industrial and commercial activity, presents throughout its interesting annals at least one undeviating principle of action—a policy characterised by an enterprise which, while ever keeping in view the prospective conditions and requirements of trade, steadily moves towards its goal by methods dictated by scrupulous and strict regard for the jealous conservation of the high and honourable repute which, in an ever-increasing degree, is the treasured possession of the firm.

Back to Index of Firms (1891)