More than 100 years of British tradition came to an end Friday as the final bottle of HP brown sauce—a popular alternative to ketchup—came off a production line at a factory in central England.
HP’s U.S. owner, H.J. Heinz Co., is moving production from Aston, Birmingham to Elst in the Netherlands to save money, despite a high-profile campaign to keep it in Britain that saw protests outside the U.S. Embassy in London and legislators brandishing bottles of the condiment in the House of Commons.
A staple that is smothered over everything from fish and chips to the traditional English fry-up breakfast of sausages, bacon, baked beans and eggs, its advertising slogan proudly proclaims it is “The Official Sauce of Great Britain.”
Its distinctive bottle carries a picture of the Houses of Parliament—giving rise to its name—a feature that some protesters say the sauce should now be stripped of.
Local businesses launched a “save our sauce campaign” and legislators tried to get the condiment banned from food outlets in the House of Commons, with some waving bottles around during a session of the prime minister’s question time.
One Labour politician called for Britons to boycott Heinz products.
Earlier last week, a protester dressed as John Bull, the top-hat-wearing symbol of a typical Englishman, climbed a tower at the Aston factory to hang protest banners. Even workers at the new factory in the Netherlands objected to the move in a show of solidarity with workers in England.
But the various protests were all to no avail.
Heinz, which bought HP from French group Danone in June 2005, said the new factory will save the company US$50 million over the next 10 years and claimed that half the workers from the Aston factory had already found new jobs.
HP sauce holds 71% of the $82-million brown sauce market and Heinz is launching a $3.1-million marketing campaign this month to keep consumers.
The campaign will include countrywide TV spots, door drops of samples and coupons as the company invests about $8 million into the iconic brand.
