The information in the following article comes to us courtesy of an anonymous contributor who contacted me earlier this month to inform me of a new HP Sauce promotion. I would have enjoyed passing along this information sooner, although I felt it important and appropriate to first document the closure of the Aston HP Sauce factory and to allow some time to pass before following it up with other related HP Sauce news items. I would like to thank this contributor for contacting me and for their patience while getting this story to the front page.

On Saturday, March 10th, 2007 classic HP Sauce came together with the legendary Monty Python to celebrate the self-proclaimed “first 1075 years” of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” with the introduction of 1,075 limited edition HP Spamalot Sauce bottles. This limited edition HP Sauce bottle features a unique design inspired by the hit West End show “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and is presented in a blue collectors box, each containing a numbered certificate of authenticity. The bottle was sold exclusively at Selfridges’ Oxford Street store, London.

Expecting a rush of Monty Python fans, Selfridges provided free bacon sandwiches to the queue of waiting customers before opening the doors to their flagship food hall at 9:30 AM. Once open, the limited edition HP Sauce bottles went on sale for £6.99 where they sold quickly, By 12:00 PM Selfridges had sold over 600 bottles and expectations were that they would be sold out by weekends end.

All proceeds from the sale of the HP Spamalot Sauce bottles are going to Tommy’s, the baby charity with HP donating all the product and Selfridges donating sales space & store merchandising.

Monty Python’s Spamalot Gets HP Saucy at Selfridges

The HP Spamalot Sauce limited edition follows on the heels of the hugely successful limited edition Paul Smith designed HP Sauce label introduced in September 2005. Both editions feature a specially designed box with matching certificate of authenticity.

Selfridges’ own food and restaurant directory Ewan Venters said:

“Selfridges is thrilled to be the exclusive stocklist of such an iconic product.

We are seeing a resurgence in heritage foods and HP Spamalot Sauce combines a traditional popular brand with hugely admired home-grown comedy.”

HP Sauce marketing manager Paul Harvey:

For fans of both HP Sauce and Monty Python, these special bottles are certain to be must have collectables.

We are delighted that HP Sauce can help “Monty Python’s Spamalot” celebrate 1,075 years, and with the support of Selfridges we are able to give every penny from the proceeds of the sales to Tommy’s, the baby charity.”

The advertising agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay who work with both brands was responsible for introducing the partnership between Selfridges and HP.

Founding partner of BMB Andrew McGuinness said:

Python, HP Sauce and Selfridges. Three icons in a gloriously unlikely collaboration, and thousands of pounds going to Tommy’s, the baby charity - it’s got to be a winner!”

More on Tommy’s, the baby charity:

Tommy’s, the baby charity exists to save babies’ lives because right now in the UK one in four women loses a baby during pregnancy of birth.

The charity funds research into and provides information on the causes and prevention of miscarriage, premature burth and stillbirth. By 2030 we want to halve the number of babies who die during pregnancy and birth.

More information on Tommy’s can be found at www.tommys.org or at 0870 777 7676.

Beattie McGuinness Bungay is the same advertising agency responsible for developing the new television campaign “The Sauce Of Weekend Pleasure”, which I reported on here.

It was almost a year in the making. On May 9^th, 2006 Heinz announced that it would close the HP Sauce factory in Aston, Birmingham and move production of HP Sauce to Holland. On Friday, March 16^th, 2007, Heinz made good on its promise and the Aston HP Sauce factory ceased production. The factory closure marks an end to an English tradition which lasted over 100 years.

For those who may not be aware of the history of HP Sauce, here is a very quick rundown on the old Birmingham factory.

The old factory stands only yards away from where Edwin Samson Moore first founded the Midland Vinegar Company back in 1875 at Aston Cross, Birmingham. The Midland Vinegar Company, later HP Foods, made a variety of products but it was the recipe for the British steak sauce purchased from F.E. Garton in nearby Nottingham in 1899 that made the company and its sauce a household name. Old glass bottles dating back to this era are even stamped with his name “Gartons HP Sauce”.

In the early 1900’s HP Foods began exporting HP Sauce throughout the British commonwealth where it remains popular to this very day.

HP Sauce Factory, Birmingham circa 1960's
Contributor: Droglite

HP Foods and subsidiary Lea & Perrins (makers of Worcestershire Sauce), have changed ownership several times over its 100 year history and HP Sauce is itself made in various locations throughout the world and has been for many decades. The closure of the Birmingham factory however is much more significant. No longer will this quintessential British sauce be in fact made in Great Britain! The ties to its founding heritage have been cut along with over 120 jobs. This is the cost of corporate greed and globalization, and it is a terrible and unnecessary shame.

Over the course of the past year, numerous initiatives like the Save Our Sauce campaign were launched in hopes of convincing Heinz to reverse the decision to close the factory. Factory workers themselves even went to Heinz in London to plead their case where they too were ultimately denied. The Birmingham Mail was a strong backer of the fight to save the factory and did much to promote the cause, including the sponsorship of a rally at the factory where thousands showed up to protest the closure and to support their fellow factory workers. The Birmingham council made concessions in attempts to convince Heinz to stay in Birmingham while MP’s openly denounced the impending closure as completely outrageous.

Yes, there are many, many people who are connected and indeed very much affected by the closure from which I have received numerous emails. One email came to me a man who lives in Birmingham and who often travels throughout Europe. Before the announcement, he told me that he would often leave an extra dollop of HP Sauce on his plate when eating abroad in restaurants. This was his small way of supporting the ‘brothers & sisters’ back at the factory. He, like a great many like him, is adamantly opposed against the Heinz decision to end production in Birmingham. If I were to read into his comments to me, I would say that this is a mild way of phrasing his distaste. Now, rather than leave a dollop of HP Sauce on his plate, he leaves packet of Branstons Brown Sauce complete with contact card should whomever finds it want more information.

Although this is but one small example, it does well to demonstrate the anger many are feeling toward Heinz.

Since Friday, I have received a number of emails from people telling me about the closure. I presume that because I had not posted on the day of the event, they may have thought perhaps I was unaware of the events taking place in Birmingham (I live in Canada). I’d like to thank those people for their emails. I was in fact very aware of what was taking place that day but decided not to write until some time had passed and I was able to gain some perspective.

I have a rule which I make every attempt to follow when updating these pages, and that is “Never write when my mood is foul”. My mood on Friday definitely fit that category and the news of the HP Sauce factory closure did very little to improve it. I decided then, to sit back and take in coverage of the event from afar, for there was little I could do to add to what was already being covered by the mainstream (British) media.

I was somewhat surprised to hear some local coverage of the closure on the radio that afternoon as I drove home from work, after all Winnipeg is a long way from Birmingham. I thought perhaps the national news would have further, more detailed coverage the same evening. The news of the closure did in fact make it to Canadian national television as follows:

Feel free to voice your opinion on this short segment as a comment at the end of this post. I for one was disgusted with it! To make a short statement about it is one thing, but to say it with a smirk as if to say “Those silly English” is quite another. At least report on it in a way that shows some respect to those who have just lost their jobs. Honestly!

This is why it has taken me 2 full days to document and voice my opinion on the factory closure. I will continue to leave the clinical reporting of such events to the mainstream media. My objective from day one has been to simply raise the profile of my favourite condiment, HP Sauce, and I hope that I have helped to contribute to that end. If you have any thoughts that you would like to share (on anything really), please feel free to contact me.

-Brad

This month, Heinz is launching a brand new HP Sauce campaign in the UK. The £1.6 million marketing campaign which is touted as being the largest ever for HP Sauce, will run nationwide television spots and mass mailing advertising. Other consumer PR activities will include a nation wide door drop sampling programme which will distribute HP Sauce sample packets along with money off purchase coupons to over 750,000 UK residents.

The March marketing campaign follows the successful launch of the new “top down” format introduced in the UK back in January. 2007 marks a big year for Heinz which is investing upwards of £4 million into the iconic HP brand. Heinz purchased HP Foods from the French group Danone in June, 2005 for £470 million.

HP Sauce currently holds 71 percent of the £42 million Brown Sauce market.

“HP Sauce is an iconic household brand and the nationwide advertising will remind consumers that no breakfast is complete without the nation’s favourite brown sauce.

‘The sauce of weekend pleasure’ campaign forms part of Heinz’s £4 million investment in the brand and is set to boost sales across the HP Sauce range.

Retailers should ensure HP Sauce is fully stocked to make the most of this significant marketing investment, as consumers reach for the HP Sauce.” – Paul Harvey, HP Marketing Manager

This new marketing campaign is however not without its controversy.

John Jordan, the Birmingham-based veteran Transport & General Workers’ Union official who led the fight to save the Birmingham HP factory, said cash being lavished on promotion would have been better spent raising efficiency at an already profitable factory.

“We said we would do our best to hit sales and we know they are right down. Now they are pouring millions into promoting the product because of damage to the brand.

It is ironic that they couldn’t afford to invest to keep the plant open, which even on their own figures would have cost just £1.4 million a year - a drop in the bucket.” *Birmingham Mail, January 16, 2007

Workers at the HP Sauce factory in Birmingham are due to stop production on Thursday, March 15th, thereby ending 108 years of tradition.

Machines at the Birmingham factory which once poured HP Sauce into white capped bottles now dispense into 1000 litre drums. Since October 2006, thousands of gallons of Birmingham HP Sauce have been packaged in this manner and shipped to Holland in vast quantities. Once in Holland, the sauce is then bottled and shipped back to the UK for sale. These bottles now bear the mark “Packed in the Netherlands”.

Joe Clarke, of Birmingham Transport and General Workers Union, said:

“It’s outrageous, it’s insensitive and it adds insult to injury to everyone who works there.

If they are trying out the new plant that’s one thing but if they are using HP workers to stockpile sauce then it’s completely insensitive and completely unacceptable.

If it is 150 containers that’s a lot of sauce and you have to wonder if things are going as smoothly in Holland as they say they are.

It’s absolutely outrageous and I shall be contacting the company to take this matter further.” *Birmingham Mail, March 12, 2007

The sauce in these bottles will have travelled a nearly 1,000 mile round trip by the time they reach the tables of those living right next to the factory which produced it.

Seen as adding only insult to injury, veteran protester John Bull (Ray Egan from Harborne, England) decided to protest at the Birmingham Factory this morning where, at 6:00 AM he managed to evade security by dressing in a hard hat & blue overalls before scaling the 10 storey tower to stage his protest.

Once on the roof of the tower, the 69 year old protester displayed signs reading “Heinz, you heartless swines”, “Daddies for Justice” and “Save HP” in hopes of raising national awareness to the issue.

John Bull Protests Atop HP Factory Tower
Source: Birmingham Mail

John Bull:

“Security has been asking how I got up here but I’m keeping that to myself. I’ll probably get arrested for this and I’m quite prepared, for the sake of HP.

My message to anyone who sat down to breakfast this morning with a bottle of HP Sauce on the table is that they should regret the loss of this great British company.

To take it away after 100 years simply isn’t on.” – Birmingham Mail, March 13, 2007

John Bull ‘Bottles’ it after roof top demo.
March 13^th, 2007

According to senior shop steward Zeff Qurreshi, staff at the building was unaware of the stunt but were nevertheless behind the message and backed the campaign to stop HP from being relocated to Holland.

^*Update March 15^th,2007: Added John Bull photographs. Source: Site Contributor

In HP Sauce at Tim Hortons?, I wrote a letter to Tim Hortons requesting they include packets of HP Sauce with every Hot Breakfast Sandwich they sell. This happened in one of those rare moments where I’ve actually felt ambitious enough to sit down and write to a big faceless corporate entity, regardless of cause or issue. After all, why on earth are they selling hot breakfast sandwiches without HP Sauce in the first place? The whole notion leaves my my mouth feeling dry.

Tim Hortons, as any living breathing Canadian will tell you, is as about as Canadian as hockey, or maple syrup. People here take pride in waiting in long line-ups whether it be on foot or in their cars, idling in long lineups which can wind around the block - all for a double-double (a coffee with two cream and two sugars). Tim Hortons is afterall, just a coffee house that serves doughnuts, muffins and soups along with their ‘famous’ Tim Hortons coffee. What sets them apart however is their omnipresent nature in the market. There are Tim Hortons locations which are even located kitty-corner (diagonally opposed) to each other at traffic intersections! Why? So drivers don’t have to cross the street to get their coffee & biccies.

Analyzing the Tim Hortons marketing machine is however not why I’m writing this. My main interest is getting HP Sauce served with their Hot Breakfast Sandwiches, and for the most part it ends there.

There then is the email which I received from Tim Hortons corporate for your amusement:

Dear Mr. K,

I would like to thank you for contacting our Head Office with your suggestion in regard to offering HP sauce with our Breakfast Sandwiches. We always appreciate hearing from our customers.

Your comments have been forwarded to our Research and Development Department for review and consideration. It is through feedback from valued customers, such as yourself, that we are continually able to grow as a company.

Thank you again for contacting us and for your ongoing patronage. If you have any further questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,
TDL Group Corp.

Sonia
Operations Services

Yes, I have a question. When will you be serving HP Sauce with your Hot Breakfast Sandwiches! Still, a generic response is better than no response at all. In the mean time, I’ll be taking my HP Sauce to timmies from now on! Perhaps I’ll post a piccie or two for posterity.