HP Sauce
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 Houses of Parliament. 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.
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 Aston, Birmingham factory (at 522956 15306 / 52.4989N 1.8849W / 52.4989; -1.8849) 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.[citation needed]
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. This variety has been renamed “HP Chicken & Rib” in Canada and the US (though it can be found in some stores with the original name). HP Bold is a spicier variant in Canada. HP BBQ Sauce is a range of BBQ Sauces, and is the UK’s best selling BBQ Sauce product. In March 2008, HP also announced the launch of HP Steak Sauce. In the summer of 2008 a version with less salt (25%) and sugar (30%) than the original HP Sauce was released.
Heinz takeover and transfer of production
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.
Canada
HP Sauce for the Canadian market is manufactured for H.J. Heinz of North York, Ontario.
See also
A1 Steak Sauce
Brown sauce
Daddies
Henry Bain sauce
Tabasco Sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Footnotes
^ HP Sauce unveils ‘Spamalot’ bottle, Marketing Week, 8 March 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2007.
^ The True Story Of HP Sauce, Dinsdale Landen and Jennifer Daniel, Methuen, 1985
^ IRI Data, 52w/e 26 Jan 08
^ BBC NEWS | Business | Heinz buys HP sauce in 470m deal
^ BBC NEWS | Business | Watchdogs probe HP sauce takeover
^ HP Sauce to be Holland-ised | Business | The Guardian
^ BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Staff told of HP factory closure
^ BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Final British bottle of HP sauce
^ BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Mock wake staged in sauce protest
^ BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Demolition of HP factory begins
External links
BBC News – Final Bottle of HP
Official HP Sauce website
Everything brown sauce!
Made in Birmingham!
Coverage of planned closure of Aston factory
Categories: British brands | British condiments | Brown sauces | Heinz brands | Brand name condiments | 1896 establishmentsHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from April 2009
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