G Jack & Son

In case you have ever wondered, the G in G Jack & Son stands for George. The delicatessen has been a Beverley business since the turn of the 20th Century, which has been handed down the generations to where it lies now, with Duncan Jack, George’s grandson.

George married into the Care family, who had a grocer’s in Saturday Market, and set up a wholesale business on Eastgate, which supplied corner shops. But, in the 1950s, the property was knocked down to make way for the Armstrong’s factory and offices.

So, 53 years ago, G Jack & Son moved into Wednesday Market. Ironically, the workers of Armstrong’s were their main customers, purchasing sandwiches from them when they left work. Cigarettes were very fashionable at that time too.

By this time, the Son of the title had joined the business, with David working there for many years. They still get gentlemen coming into the shop who remember being errand boys for David, using the type of Granville bike which is proudly displayed outside the shop now.

This all changed with the arrival of supermarkets in the 1960s, and David decided he needed another string to his grocery bow, so he started stocking health foods and home brew kits, which were just getting popular.

Duncan joined the business in 1985, as his father David neared retirement. He eased Duncan into it but then left him alone to make his own mistakes, and the business is still thriving under the management of the third generation of Jacks.

Health foods and home brew were falling by the wayside, with Holland & Barrett and Boots now capturing the market, so Duncan decided to do away with them and knock through into the store rooms at the back, to make more room on the shop floor for speciality foods and canned goods.

By 1995, they were concentrating on making sandwiches again. It was at this point that Duncan’s wife Joy decided to help in the shop for what started as a few hours a week, but now sees her working there full time.

Duncan’s mother was part of the Conway family who had a butcher’s shop on Flemingate, so making and serving meat pies was an obvious step for the delicatessen to take. They bought the premises on Flemingate and took over the bakehouse, allowing them to do a lot more of their own baking.

The products are still freshly made at the Flemingate site now and transported to the shop in Wednesday Market to be sold. And pies are probably their best-seller, so it was a valuable business decision.

But it isn’t just the retail shop you can see on Wednesday Market that forms G Jack & Son, with outside catering still being a part of their business. They provide finger buffets for working lunches, parties, funerals, as well as things like pies and peas for events.

The supply of hampers is also something which has become sought after, especially at Christmas. This came from an idea from Nicky Kelly, who runs the shop in the Jacks’ absence, and she has a real flair for them; making them attractive as well as good value. People can walk around the shop and choose what they want to put in them, or have a ready-made version.

They are currently in the middle of creating a brochure for their hampers and hope it is something which will really take off in the future.

The success of G Jack & Son’s can be attributed to the friendly service. The staff stay for a long time - David was still doing the books for the family business well into his eighties, carrying on the tradition which saw George still working there in his nineties - and get to know their customers.

The older generation are used to being served and having meats hand-carved in front of them, rather than putting things into a basket, and they still go to Jack’s for this personal treatment, and for a chat. The younger generation tend to pop in for a lunchtime sandwich.

Whatever it is you want from your delicatessen, G Jack & Son is a family business for people from all walks of life. Situated in the heart of Beverley, it has Beverley at its heart.