Fears confirmed, Aston HP Sauce plant to close
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.
August 25th, 2006 06:31
It’s a switch to Daddies sauce now for me!
Official Comment - August 25th, 2006 08:40
I’m sorry to dissapoint but Daddies is an HP Foods product and therefore owned by Heinz.
August 26th, 2006 10:03
You need to buy Branstons from now on. They do brown sauce, ketchup, the compulsory pickle, and they now do baked beans (with or without sausages) and spaghetti hoops as well.
August 27th, 2006 07:04
The Branstons sauce is not a patch on HP, the local supermarket had it on offer and i got some, the results were disapointing!
i wrote to my MP (Jeremy Wright)about what he thought and he supported the closure. One vote less for him now.
Official Comment - August 27th, 2006 10:31
HP Sauce is a unique condiment sauce. It is unlike ketchup or relish where regardless of which brand you choose - you get essentially the same thing. HP has a distinctive, unique taste that cannot be replaced by switching to another brand.
August 28th, 2006 15:51
Have to agree with Brad on this one - try HP Sauce alongside any other brown sauce and you spot its unique taste straight away. Daddies has a much stronger vinegar taste (as do a lot of the supermarket versions. Branston is just a bit bland and fruity - not a proper spicy brown sauce. If you want HP Sauce, then you have to buy HP Sauce, whether it is made in Birmingham, Holland or Timbuktu.
August 30th, 2006 00:22
Gday all
BOO HEINZ BOO.
May your executive jets develop engine problems over water.
I am running up to a shop this week in Sydney that stocks glass imports for the UK and stocking up.
I do not even trust heinz to keep the taste the same. I will savour my stash to the last drop.
Here is the news report this morning on this as the general public are starting to find out about this here
Brits browned off
Steve Jacobs
August 30, 2006 - 10:32AM
Iconic British condiment … HP Sauce.
It’s the spicey sauce with the picture of the Houses of Parliament on the bottle.
But HP, the iconic British condiment to the blander offerings of the national cuisine, is moving offshore … to Holland.
The HP Sauce factory in Birmingham is to close next March, US food giant Heinz has confirmed, with the loss of 120 jobs.
Heinz has faced a furious reaction in Britain with calls to boycott the company’s products and demands that the image of the Houses of Parliament be removed from the sauce’s label.
Unions campaigned strongly to keep the plant open but have now given up.
After the plan to close the factory was announced in May, workers staged a protest outside Parliament in a bid to save it.
Heinz spokesman Nigel Dickie admitted it was “a sad day for Birmingham”, the BBC reported.
He said the sauce would still have the Houses of Parliament on its label “because of its historical association”.
The BBC reported the acting national secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, John Jordan, as saying: “There’s no need for the factory to close.
“It’s a case pure and simple of corporate greed. Birmingham is a highly profitable site and this move is to bail out the factory in Holland.”
Zeffar Qurreshi, who has worked at the factory for 29 years, said the workers were gutted.
August 30th, 2006 11:28
Try the recipes on this very site. If you wish to pull off the boycott, some might come pretty close to ‘the real thing’.
Official Comment - August 30th, 2006 13:28
The recipe on this site that most closely approaches HP Sauce is HP Style Brown Sauce. I have personally tried this recipe and while it is a very credible brown sauce, it (nor any other recipe in my opinion) can truly replace HP Sauce. I agree however that in a pinch it may very well serve as a viable (boycott) alternative.
September 4th, 2006 09:48
No wonder the greedy Americans are loathed around the world !!! Yet another British historical icon lost !! Disgraceful. As for keeping the Houses of Parliament on the bottle….. how can they !! It’s no longer made in England. Isn’t that the whole point of the label. Now they are misleading people into believing it’s British !! If there was ever a case for protecting our assets from greedy foreign companies this is it ! Trade discription offence surely ! That lot accross the water are always protecting their stuff from immitation !
Anyone know a good recipe for my new prosed British Brown sauce…. I’m going to call it TB Sauce…. ‘Tower Bridge Sauce’…..
September 13th, 2006 06:01
Well I won’t be buying HP Sauce again, and will encourage others to do the same. I look on packaging to see if it’s made in the UK, if it isn’t, I don’t buy it. I work for a UK based food company and they are moving more and more to the Eastern block EU. I will find myself out of a job shortly if this continues, think I like the EU? Think again.
I thought the EU was only supposed to take others of an equal economic standing? They’ll drag our workers pay down and make the bosses richer. That coupled with the mad house prices!!!! Thanks a lot.
October 19th, 2006 08:56
HP Sauce has always been in our kitchen for generations
and we will certainly miss this landmark in Aston.
We wish to tell all affected employees of HP Sauce not to despair.
We are offering opportunity to any one who are serious about
making a honest living to pay for their mortgages or university
fee, etc and some maybe worrying about their pensions and
retirement. No special requirement needed. All are welcome.
Hope is just a call away. Please ring 07760 300 801 Jess