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HP Sauce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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HP Sauce is a popular brown sauce produced in Birmingham, England. It has a malt vinegar base blended
with fruit and spices. |
The original recipe for was invented and developed by FG Garton a grocer from Nottingham. F.G. Garton's
Sauce Manufacturing began to market HP Sauce in 1903. Garton came to call the sauce HP because he had heard
that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. Garton sold the recipe and HP brand for
the sum of £150 and the settlement of some unpaid bills to Edwin Samson Moore.
HP Sauce became known as `Wilson's Gravy' in the 1960s and '70s after Harold Wilson, the
Labour Prime Minister who, it was alleged, used to cover his food with the sauce. The
allegation was neither confirmed nor denied by Wilson. In
June 2005, Heinz purchased the parent company, HP Foods, from Danone.
In October of that year the United Kingdom Office of Fair Trading
referred the takeover to the Competition Commission, who gave the
go-ahead for the £440 million acquisition in April 2006.
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 and the factory at Aston
ceased production on 16 March 2007. A week later a "wake" was held at
the location of the factory.
The factory was demolished in the
summer of 2007. The tower of the factory was a famous landmark
alongside the Aston Expressway. The giant logo from the top of the
tower is now in the collection of Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. 
The HP sauce factory prior to its demolition in 2007
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