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 HP Sauce on a bacon sandwich | |
| Product type | Brown sauce |
|---|---|
| Owner | Kraft Heinz (2005–pres.) |
| Produced by | Heinz |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1895; 130 years ago (1895)[1] |
| Markets | Europe, Canada, Australia |
| Previous owners | |
| Website | hpsauce.co.uk |
HP Sauce is a Britishbrown sauce,[2] the main ingredients of which aretomatoes,malt vinegar andmolasses. It was named after London'sHouses of Parliament. After making its first appearance on British dinner tables in the late 19th century, HP Sauce went on to become an icon ofBritish culture.[3] It was the best-selling brand of brown sauce in the UK in 2005, with 73.8% of the retail market.[4] The sauce was originally produced in the United Kingdom, but is now made byHeinz in theNetherlands.
HP Sauce has a tomato base, blended withmalt vinegar andspirit vinegar,sugars (molasses,glucose-fructose syrup,sugar),dates, cornflour, rye flour, salt, spices andtamarind.[5] It is used as a condiment with hot and coldsavoury food, and as an ingredient insoups andstews.
The picture on the front of the bottle is a selection of London landmarks includingBig Ben, thePalace of Westminster, andWestminster Bridge.
Frederick Gibson Garton had a grocers and provisions shop on Milton Street, in Nottingham. He used this recipe for the brown sauce in his pickles and sauce factory inNew Basford. This was located at the rear of his home in Sandon Street. Its ingredients included vinegar, water, tomato puree, garlic, tamarind, ground mace, cloves and ginger, shallots, cayenne pepper, raisins, soy, flour and salt. Garton registered the name H.P. Sauce in 1895, choosing it because he had heard a rumour that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. The sauce bottle labels carried a picture of the Houses of Parliament. This was not his only product; he also made Nottingham Sauce, Sandon Sauce, Worcester Sauce, Banquet Sauce, Yorkshire Sauce and Daddies Favourite Sauce, as well as Garton & Co's Indian Chutney.[citation needed]
In 1899 he was unable to settle a debt with his vinegar suppliers, the Midland Vinegar Company of Aston Cross, Birmingham. Edwin Samson Moore of the vinegar company visited his Nottingham premises to settle the matter. The outcome was that Garton sold the name and recipe for HP Sauce for £150.[6] He also had to agree to keep out of the sauce and pickles business. The name of GARTON remained on the bottles of HP sauce for many years afterwards but it was The Midland Vinegar Company who profited from the huge sales that were generated. Today HP andDaddies are the two most popular national brands of brown sauce.[citation needed]
For many years[vague] the bottle labels have carried a picture of the Houses of Parliament.[6]
In the United Kingdom, HP Sauce became informally known as "Wilson's gravy" in the 1960s and 1970s, afterMary Wilson, the wife ofPrime MinisterHarold Wilson, gave an interview toThe Sunday Times, in which she said: "If Harold has a fault, it is that he will drown everything with HP Sauce."[7]
The brand passed from the Midlands Vinegar Company[3] to Smedley HP Foods Limited, which was subsequently acquired by a division ofImperial Tobacco, before being sold to the FrenchGroupe Danone SA in 1998 for £199 million.[8]
In June 2005,Heinz purchased the parent company,HP Foods, fromDanone.[9] In October of that year the United KingdomOffice of Fair Trading referred thetakeover to theCompetition Commission,[10] which approved the £440 million acquisition in April 2006.[11]
In May 2006, Heinz announced plans to switch production of HP Sauce fromAston inBirmingham to its European sauces facility inElst,Netherlands, only weeks after HP launched a campaign to "Save the Proper British Cafe". The announcement caused backlash and prompted a call to boycott Heinz products. The move, resulting in the loss of approximately 125 jobs at the Aston factory, was criticised by politicians andunion officials, especially as the owner still wanted to use the image of theHouse of Commons on its bottles. In the same month, local Labour MPKhalid Mahmood brandished a bottle of HP Sauce duringPrime 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 MinisterHarold Wilson. These plans were confirmed on 23 August 2006[12] and the factory at Aston ceased production on 16 March 2007.[13] A week later a"wake" was held at the location of the factory.[14]
The factory was demolished in the summer of 2007.[15]
The six-acre Aston site was purchased by developer Chancerygate in 2007 at £800,000 per acre; they subsequently sold it for half that price and it now houses a distribution warehouse forEast End Foods.[16]
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HP Sauce is available in a range of formats and sizes, including theiconic 9 oz/255 g glassbottle, plasticsqueeze bottle, and TopDown bottle.
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