HP Sauce

HP Sauce is a condiment; a popular brown sauce formerly produced in Aston, Birmingham, England, by HP Foods but now produced by H.J. Heinz in Elst, the Netherlands. It has a malt vinegar base blended with fruit, spices and is usually eaten as an adjunct to hot or cold savoury food, or used as an ingredient in soups or stews. It is the most well known brand of brown sauce in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the best selling, with 71% of the UK market. [ [http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=55325&d=254&h=0&f=0 HP Sauce unveils 'Spamalot' bottle] , Marketing Week, 8 March 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2007.]

Early history

The original recipe for HP Sauce was invented and developed by Frederick Gibson Garton, a grocer from Nottingham. He registered the name H.P. Sauce in 1896. Garton called the sauce HP because he had heard that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. For many years the bottle labels have carried a picture of the Palace of Westminster. Garton sold the recipe and HP brand for the sum of £150 and the settlement of some unpaid bills to Edwin Samson Moore. Moore, the founder of the Midlands Vinegar Company (the forerunner of HP Foods) subsequently launched HP Sauce in 1903.

Some stories suggest that the name HP was derived from the name Harry Palmer [The True Story Of HP Sauce, Dinsdale Landen and Jennifer Daniel, Methuen, 1985] . Palmer was said to have invented the recipe and sold the product as "Harry Palmer's Famous Epsom Sauce". The story then goes that Palmer, an avid gambler at the Epsom Races, was forced to sell the recipe to Garton to cover his debts. However, there is no evidence in the official history of the brand to show Palmer existed, or had any claim to the development of the recipe. It also seems unlikely that Garton, a grocer from the Midlands would have come in contact with a gambler from the south of England.

For many years the description on the label was in both English and French. During a 1960s BBC television broadcast Marty Feldman sang the French version in the style of Jacques Brel. This performance is included in the DVD "The Best of Marty Feldman", and the song was also included on Feldman's 1969 album "I Feel a Song Going Off". The sauce gained brief fame when it was reportedly used by pagans during solstice celebrations.

The Aston factory (at coord|52.4989|-1.8849|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline) was once bisected by the A38(M) motorway and had a pipeline, carrying vinegar over the motorway, from the Top Yard to the main Tower Road factory site. The Top Yard site was subsequently closed, and vinegar was not brewed on the Aston site during the last few years of production there. Ansells' brewery was adjacent to the factory.

Wilson's Gravy

HP Sauce became known as "Wilson's Gravy" in the 1960s and 1970s after Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister. The name arose after Wilson's wife, Mary, gave an interview to the "Sunday Times" in which she claimed "If Harold has a fault, it is that he will drown everything with HP Sauce". In 1975, when Wilson addressed a banquet to celebrate 100 years since the formation of the Midlands Vinegar Company, he admitted that it was not HP Sauce that he was partial to, but was in fact Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.

"Private Eye"'s Parliamentary news section is called "HP Sauce".

Varieties

HP Sauce is available in a range of formats and sizes, including the iconic 9oz or 255 g glass bottle, squeezy plastic bottle, and TopDown bottle. In addition, a number of other products exist under the HP brand. HP Fruity is a milder version of the Original brown sauce, using a blend of fruits including oranges and mango to give a milder, tangier taste. Because "fruit" is a derogatory term for homosexuals in North America, this variety has been renamed "HP Chicken & Rib" in Canada and the US. HP BBQ Sauce is a range of BBQ Sauces, and is the UK's best selling BBQ Sauce product. [IRI Data, 52w/e 26 Jan 08] . In March 2008, HP also announced the launch of HP Steak Sauce. In the summer of 2008 a reduced salt (25%) & sugar (30%) than original HP Sauce was released.

Heinz takeover and transfer of production

In June 2005, Heinz purchased the parent company, HP Foods, from Danone. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4110006.stm BBC NEWS | Business | Heinz buys HP sauce in £470m deal ] ] In October of that year the United Kingdom Office of Fair Trading referred the takeover to the Competition Commission, [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4379248.stm BBC NEWS | Business | Watchdogs probe HP sauce takeover ] ] who gave the go-ahead for the £440 million acquisition in April 2006. [ [http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1771316,00.html HP Sauce to be Holland-ised | Business | The Guardian ] ]

In May 2006, Heinz announced plans to switch production of HP Sauce from Aston to its European sauces facility in Elst, the Netherlands, ironically only weeks after HP launched a campaign to "Save the Proper British Cafe". The announcement prompted a call to boycott Heinz products. The move, resulting in the loss of approximately one hundred and twenty-five jobs at the Aston factory, was criticised by politicians and union officials, especially as the parent company still wanted to use the image of the House of Commons on its bottles. In the same month, Labour MP Khalid Mahmood brandished a bottle of HP Sauce during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons as part of a protest against the Heinz move. He also made reference to the sauce's popularity with the former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. These plans were confirmed on 23 August 2006 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/5279896.stm BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Staff told of HP factory closure ] ] and the factory at Aston ceased production on 16 March 2007. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6455565.stm BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Final British bottle of HP sauce ] ] A week later a "wake" was held at the location of the factory. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6483571.stm BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Mock wake staged in sauce protest ] ]

Demolition of the factory began in July 2007. It is estimated that it will take 16 weeks to completely demolish. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6260668.stm BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Demolition of HP factory begins ] ] The tower of the factory, bearing the HP logo, was previously a famous landmark alongside the Aston Expressway leaving Birmingham City Centre.

ee also

* A1 Steak Sauce
* Brown sauce
* Daddies
* Henry Bain sauce
* Tabasco Sauce

References/External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6455565.stm BBC News - Final Bottle of HP]
* [http://www.hpsauce.co.uk/ Official HP Sauce website]
* [http://www.brownsauce.org/ Everything brown sauce!]
* [http://www.madeinbirmingham.org Made in Birmingham!]
* [http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/news/tm_objectid=17055835%26method=full%26siteid=50002%26headline=farewell%2dto%2da%2dbrum%2dicon-name_page.html/ Coverage of planned closure of Aston factory]

Footnotes