Jacquin’s is America’s oldest cordial producer, established in 1884 in New York.
For the past eight decades, its home has been in Philadelphia.
Maurice Cooper, the grandfather of current Jacquin’s CEO John Cooper, bought the company in 1933 and moved it to Philadelphia. Cooper moved it to its current location on Trenton Avenue in Kensington in 1941, where it remains a cornerstone in the community.
“We have a third-generation employee whose grandmother worked here,” said Jim Logan, plant manager. “Both her parents and her five siblings worked here. We have quite a few second-generation employees now. Our head mechanic Tony Sproul — his mother worked here for 30 plus years. Our sales administrator and receptionist — her father worked here for close to 40 years running the warehouse.”
“A few of the employees live literally right across the street and around the corner,” adds Logan, who has three siblings who also worked at Jacquin’s. “A lot of us grew up around here. Some of us went to the same schools. It is rare to have this size of a plant nestled in a neighborhood in a big city like Philadelphia.”
Bob Lomber, Senior Vice President of Operations, said Jacquin’s plans to establish a tasting room and offer site tours in the future.
“This area continues to develop, and people are looking for a place locally to go,” he said. “We hope to be that place. Putting in a tasting room is a matter of, what beautiful site do we want to put it in, in this building because we’ve got great views of downtown Philadelphia, the Ben Franklin Bridge.”
Lomber adds that safety is a top priority, “We’re not normally a tour facility-type place, so there’s a lot of prep work that has to be done. The tasting will be at the end of the tour journey. Once that’s in place, we’ll be ready to go.”
Adam Weinberg, head of marketing, explains that while the focus is on their mother brand, Jacquin’s, they also have new brands, Roaster’s Daughter—a ready to drink espresso martini—and Union Forge, the official sponsor of the Philadelphia Flyers.
“Those are both two brands that are produced here in Philadelphia at our facility here,” he said. “It’s promoting those two as well as our legacy brand of Jacquin’s. We have a great presence here in Philadelphia and that’s really been driving a lot of the growth.”
After 140 years of business, and generations of work, the Cooper family is committed to continue to invest in Philadelphia.
“To see John’s commitment to staying here—I think I could speak for the neighborhood and people that have worked here—how much we appreciate what the Cooper family has done,” said Logan. “To provide a lot of people in the neighborhood with opportunities to provide for their families. There’s a lot of employees that feel the same way—especially the generational employees.”
