JAC, the Belgian world leader in bread slicers

Check it out next time: there is a real chance that your bread has been cut with a 'jac', a top-quality Belgian bread slicer from Liège.  

Long ago, many mothers ritually drew a sign of the cross on the bread with a razor-sharp knife before clamping it between chin and bosom to cut it. The days of the mechanical slicer with the crank are also long gone: today, the electric bread slicer does all the work.  

The world leader in that niche market is the Liège-based family business JAC, an acronym composed of the first initials of the three children of the original entrepreneur who, after the Normandy landings in 1944, had bought up a stock of machines from the U.S. Army – because slicing bread by machine is an American invention. The children were named Jacques, Amélie and Charles – JAC. In 1990, he sold his company to the family of the current CEO, Adrien Craeninckx. They made it into a large concern, industrial and dynamic, through acquisitions, product diversification, capital injections, expansions, and export ambitions. In 2024, JAC exports 90% of its products to as many as 90 countries. Just about one in four of the world's bread slicers is a 'jac'.  

Quality and innovation are key. The service life of a jac – which has since evolved from brand name to a common name – is expected to be no less than 15 to 20 years, while that of cheaper but inferior counterfeits from Asia is far shorter. Furthermore, it automatically adjusts the cutting force to the type of bread, guarantees variable cutting thickness from thin through medium to thick, and pays attention to speed, ergonomics and hygiene. Only the proper cutting of an oven-fresh loaf of bread is not yet successful, but it is being worked on.  

If you are technically minded, feel free to drop by JAC, atop its levelled slag heap in the Sclessin neighbourhood of Liège. They almost always have vacancies for such job profiles, because there is a lot of potential in emerging countries. Who knows, if you are hired, it could be the making (or baking!) of your fortune.