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.

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“HP Sauce is an iconic household brand and the nationwide advertising will remind consumers that no breakfast is complete without the nations 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

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