MARTINS FERRY — A staple business in Belmont County, Jacob and Sons Quality Meats is forever evolving to ensure a future of serving the community with high-grade meats and cheeses.

Opened by Mike Jacobs in 1979, Jacob and Sons aims to be more than just your standard meat packing company. At the time, the business’s model was as a wholesaler to various local stores and restaurants.

“Our goal here is simple. We strive to create an atmosphere and experience that differs from any other grocery store or market while offering a variety of different products you cannot get anywhere else,” Jacob and Sons’ website states.

“Business was doing so good with the volume that we needed to get a bigger building,”

Jacob and Sons Production Manager Michael “Chops” Jacobs III said.

In 1982, Jacob and Sons broke ground on its current facility due to needing a larger building. When moving between properties, the family decided to tear down its slaughterhouse and leave that portion of the business due to its long hours.

“We kept a little bit of our retail customers, but we didn’t want to compete with the stores that we were selling to,” Jacobs said.

He added that in the 1990s, he began to see the decline of the local, small-town grocery store and realized the company needed to adapt if it wanted to survive.

“In 2004, we started to direct towards the customer, more retail and over the counter,” he said. “We’re not big enough to do business with Walmart. The businesses that service them, you could put 10 of our buildings inside of one of theirs.”

One way that he believes the company stands out is that it does on-location vacuum sealing of all of its items.

“I think that the trend that we’re seeing today is people want to be able to track where everything is being processed,” he said. “The thing that our customers love is that we cut everything fresh every day, and within 20 minutes it’s vacuum sealed and put in the freezer right away. So when people come in, they don’t have to touch it. They just put it in their freezer and they’re ready to roll.”

As of today, the shop offers over 100 different variations of pork, chicken and beef. In addition to those options, Jacob and Sons offer variety packs where customers can purchase an array of meats at different price points. depending on what and how much they would like to receive.

“I’m 61, and we’ve seen a ton of changes since we were kids. We went from a slaughterhouse to a smaller grocery-type store, then went into distribution. And now we’ve come full circle,” Jacobs said.

He added that the company still does some distribution, but its primary focus is direct to consumer retail. With the focus shifted to serving shoppers directly, Jacobs said that the company was able to expand the types of items it offers.

“We have over 100 selections of sausage now. Ten years ago we had four. We had one type of burger, and now we have 28,” he said.

When it comes to the future of the company, Jacobs is optimistic but doesn’t believe he will be around to see when most of the changes happen.

He said that in his lifetime, he believes he won’t see too many more changes, but his nephew T.J. Jacobs will take over the company once he and his brothers Tim and Lance Jacobs retire. He believes T.J. will be the one who sees the most changes.

“I wish I could answer what the future holds, but I know it’s going to change,” Jacobs said. “Hopefully we’ll have a niche here, and hopefully we’ve set that up for the next 20 to 30 years.”

Although times are forever changing in the meat processing industry, Jacobs ensures that the company will continue to create its fan favorite homemade “Kolbossy” (smoked kielbasa) from a recipe that has been in the Jacobs family for the past 75 years.