It’s the day that none of us wanted to come. Today, Heinz officially confirmed that Birmingham’s historic HP Sauce factory will close in March 2007 with the loss of 120 jobs.

Workers at the HP factory used every available means open to them to solidify the plants future during the 3 month compulsory consultation period following the initial announcement in May. Union bosses have stated that employees were “gutted” at the news and pledge to boycott all Heinz and HP Sauce products.

Options put on the table to keep the plant open included a new factory; Euro and Government grants to upgrade premises; and a restructuring plan by the T&G union which would have involved 40 job losses and shift changes. All options listed were rejected by Heinz vice president David Hobin who said:

“We deeply regret having come to this difficult but necessary decision, which has only been made after careful consideration of alternatives. It is dissapointing we have not been able to find an alternative to close the financial gap.”

Supposidly Heinz didn’t look very hard as they appear to have missed the £5-million-a-year incentive package amongst the other options laid out on the table in front of them.

Mr Hobin added that the decision was in no way a reflection of the HP Sauce employees who have “continued to demonstrate their dedication and hard work”.

Authors comment: Could it be because they are fine people who remain loyal to a 100 year tradition of making one of the worlds finest sauces despite it being ripped out from under them? Heinz doesn’t deserve a workforce like this!

Heinz has blatantly ignored the outspoken 3 month campaign waged by Aston workers to reverse the decsision to close the factory, a campaign backed by the Birmingham Mail’s Save Our Sauce drive. Indeed, Heinz has the gall to announce that they intend on continuing to use the Houses of Parliament on it’s label.

British MP Khalid Mahmood called the decision “disgraceful” and vowed to lobby for the removal of the Houses of Parliament image from HP Sauces’ label. “What they are doing is disgraceful and they should be treated with contempt.”

He continued:

“I am going to push for a total boycott of Heinz products - not just HP Sauce - if it is not made in Birmingham. They want customer loyalty, but they have shown no loyalty to the people of Birmingham or the UK. So we should get all their products out of our kitchens and of our supermarket shelves.

And along with other MPs, I will insist they take the Houses of Parliament logo off the label. It is a Trade Descriptions Act issue. If it is not made in Britain, how can it have Parliament on the front?

They said they had a £25 million shortfall but the local authority, Department of trade and Industry Advantage West Midlands came up with proposals which would have covered that. It would have been worth £5 million a year and allowed them to save the jobs in Aston. There would also have been help in upgrading the factory, to give them the extra capacity they say they need.

But they chose not to take that on board. They have deliberately used this as an excuse to close the whole business down because they had already made a bad decision to buy the Elst plant in Holland.”

Mr Mahmood has also called for the Aston factory - a city landmark to be termed a listed building which may prevent Heinz from selling it saying: “It is part of our history.”

John Jordon, acting secretary for food of the Transport and General Workers Union said:

“We were trying to keep the plant open, but now we will be concentrating on negotiating the most we can in terms of redundancy packages. We will also start acting against the brand. We are convinced we can cause more damage than the £1.5 million they claim they would save closing the plant. These are tactics like the Peugeot campaign, but we will be tying up with another British manufacturer who produces what we hope will become another major British brand.”

Mr Jordan closed by saying:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has helped in this campaign, not least the Birmingham Mail.”

^*Source: Birmingham Mail

I would like to add to this by adding a personal thank-you to all of you who have shown support for this cause. When I first started this site, I was somewhat skeptical if I’d find others who share my enthusiasm for this great brand. I need not have worried. You have shown me time and time again that there are many of us who are very fond (fanatical even) about HP Sauce, and rightly so. It is part of our collective heritage and is worthy of both celebrating and preserving. Thank you.

This week I’d like to share with you a personal favourite recipe of mine. It is a family recipe which we use routinely but sparingly throughout the year; primarily on special occasions. I highly recommend this recipe with either barbequed or mashed potatoes (dependant on the season) with liberal use of HP Sauce!

Use additional Worchestershire and HP Sauce (Original or Bold) to add a further kick to the sauce. Serve the ribs with baby barbequed potatoes, corn on the cob and whatever else you fancy.

Baked Short Ribs

Ingredients

1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 onion (sliced)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tbsp HP Sauce (Original or Bold)

Preparation:

• 1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
  
• 2. Cut short ribs (thawed pork or beef) into managable pieces. Place into oven roasting pan.
  
  
• 3. Combine above ingredients into a bowl, mix thoroughly. Pour evenly over ribs.
  
  
• 4. Bake ribs for 2 hours @ 350 degrees F.

Preparation: 10 - 15 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours
Serves: 4 - 6

This recipe is very simple to prepare and always leaves people licking their fingers! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

With all the HP Sauce news coming out of Birmingham, England these past couple of months, one might be tempted to think that perhaps the Heinz decision to move production of HP sauce to Holland just might impact the average HP Sauce lover living outside of the UK. I’m here to say that it has in fact not changed things much at all, at least from where I’m sitting. Unfortunately, word of the impending closure of the Aston plant has yet to spur anger the hearts and minds of the general (HP consuming) populous residing on this side of the pond. I am in fact the only one I know of in Canada (or anywhere else really, save Malta) who has actively taken any interest in seeing the Birmingham HP Sauce heritage preserved. If I am being totally honest, I must admit then that I am somewhat disheartened by this realization. None of us today would be enjoying delicious HP Sauce at all if it weren’t for the Aston factory!

I am encouraged however to learn about the continued fight being fought by the Birmingham HP factory workers who have now joined forces with the powerful US based Teamsters union. The Teamsters Union which both owns shares in Heinz and has close ties with Britain’s Transport & General Workers’ Union, will soon be launching a barrage of hostile questions aimed directly at the Heinz board - directly addressing the controversial planned closure of the Birmingham factory. Perhaps this move might finally raise some eyebrows where it counts, I wish them every bit of luck!

Meanwhile, back in Winnipeg - I have just come back from a shopping run at the local ubermarket grocery store where I’ve just picked up a fresh bottle of HP Sauce. Around its neck is a tag which announces a new promotion by HP Sauce, Lea & Perrins and the Canadian Beef Information Center. This promotion contains two new recipes (shown below) for “Beef Skewers with Golden Grilled Vegetables” and “Marinated Steak with Sassy Beef Sauce”. They both look very tasty, and as this is right in the middle of BBQ season I quite look forward to trying them both. I’m not sure how any recipe can improve upon a bacon butty however. There’s something so very enticingly simple about toast, bacon & HP Sauce. It’s delicous, and it makes great snack while staying up to watch “Are You Being Served?” on television in the evening. Still…one must try new things!

Both “Beef Skewers with Golden Grilled Vegetables“ and “Marinated Steak with Sassy Beef Sauce“ recipes can be found in the recipes section. Enjoy!

^*Although it is not very obvious, there is indeed a bit of Heinz influence at play with these recipes. 10 points for simply spotting it, and 1000 points for boo-ing, hissing, writing your MP, generally calling attention to the Heinz nastiness and signing the petition!