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:

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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 entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 1:47pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.