Just a quick note from the road….

This month I am enjoying a much needed vacation in beautiful British Columbia, Canada where I have just spent several days on Vancouver Island. While in Victoria, I made a point to keep an eye out for things Brown Sauce. Why here? As the name would suggest, Victoria is as about as British as a Canadian city gets, which as it turns out, is not very British at all. Still, Victoria is a lovely little city with a beautiful harbour, great people and a nice little “English Sweet Shop” on 738 Yates St. This little shop was abundant with every conceivable English sweet one could imagine, and nestled in the rear of the shop was a small grocery section with 6 unassuming bottles of Birmingham made HP Sauce which I promptly scouped up and deposited next to the till where I proudly announced “I’m buying out your HP Sauce!”. Seeing this from near the front of the store, my wife rolled her eyes and said “..he has a thing for HP Sauce.”. “You don’t say!” came the reply from the woman attending the counter.

This was indeed a nice find. Apparently word of what Heinz has done with the brand hasn’t yet reached Canada’s west coast. Later I managed to find a bottle of HP Fruity (unavailable for quite some time now) and two bottles of HP Mild Curry at Salty’s Fish & Chips on Douglas St. If I continue to come across finds like this, we’ll run out of room in the car for the journey home…

Today we stopped in an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) restaurant in Richmond. We ended up at IHOP purely out of convenience and it was my first (and most likely last) encounter with this particular restaurant chain. I only highlight this particular experience as it has an unlikely Brown Sauce encounter.

Upon entering the restaurant, I quickly noted how each table had their own bottle of HP Sauce. At first I found this somewhat curious. This is one of the very few occasions where I’ve come across where HP Sauce is served by default without requiring one to ask for it. What makes this particularly notable is that this restaurant chain is little more than a fast food outlet where one can wolf down huge breakfast portions served to your table in less than 5 minutes, all for less then $9.99. Its disgusting really, its no wonder todays society is struggling with obesity with the likes of IHOP (and countless other chains just like it) around.

The waitress which presented the condiments to our table made a point of delivering it alongside Heinz tomato ketchup where she said “Here is your ketchup and sauce for bacon. Okay?”. Erm…okay!

The bottle she presented us was subtly different than the one I used in “Heinz and the HP Sauce brand in 2007 - A Consumers Perspective“. Although the exact address now escapes me, this bottle was clearly Canadian produced with no New Jersey, USA reference. The bottle too had also changed. Along with the new, narrow labels the bottle itself is now an opaque brown! I am referring of course to the regular format plastic squeezy variety. It is unclear to me whether this is an attempt at hiding Heinz’s watered down version of HP Sauce, or to fall in line with the other Heinz brands which also have opaque bottles. Still, like the sauce contained within, the solid brown colour bottle just doesn’t “fit” the brand. Not a drop made it onto my plate.

What I think is entirely likely here is that now that Heinz owns the HP Sauce brand, they will try to grow its market share and they will use their considerable resources to flog it along side their more established (we’re talking North America here) brands like tomato ketchup. What’s wrong with this picture? It should be obvious by now - Heinz has changed the recipe thus cheapening the entire brand in the process…only now they can hide it better in an opaque bottle. It’s a pity the English Sweet Shop didn’t also carry Branston Brown Sauce (I did ask) for I would have bought up every last bottle of it as well.

The End of an Era

In May, 2006 Heinz announced that Birmingham produced HP Sauce would be no more. From now on, Heinz decreed, HP Sauce would be made in Holland and imported to the British market. Outraged, the people of Birmingham rallied behind their beloved sauce. Calls for boycotts were raised, petitions were formed and calls for action ultimately culminated in a huge rally where thousands of people marched on the streets of Birmingham demanding that Heinz reverse their decision. Heinz ultimately refused, thus marking the beginning of the end for this quintessentially British brand.

July 2^nd, 2007 - Denis Adams (East Birmingham British National Party Organizer) displays a somber message. Contributor: Paul Smith

Now, just over a year later, Heinz formally cut its ties with the people of Birmingham by announcing on June 29^th, 2007 that the iconic HP Sauce factory on Tower Road would be facing imminent demolition.

In response, an outraged Brummie wrote me only this morning to vent his frustration:

I think Heinz’s idea is ‘if its not there we will forget’ well we ain’t forgot the first and second world war and as long as there is HP on the shelf we wont forget.

The historic HP sauce factory is located on a 2.39 hectare site in Aston and is the original site of the Midland Vinegar Company founded by Edwin Samson Moore in 1875. Along with HP Sauce and its varieties, the factory continued to produce its own vinegar into the 1990’s and utilized a unique vinegar pipeline which ran over the A38(M) (Aston Motorway). Heinz ultimately closed the factory in March, 2007 following several months of relocation efforts to shift production to the Holland plant. Demolition of the factory commenced on July 2^nd, 2007 - a short 4 months after the closure.

July 2^nd, 2007 - John Bull lays a wreath at the former HP Sauce factory, a Birmingham landmark for over 100 years. Source: The Birmingham Mail

With the dust from the HP factories’ demolition still very fresh in everyones noses, Chancerygate has put forth plans for a regeneration of the site with a new business park making way for up to 200 new jobs. This announcement follows a pre-application consultation with the Birmingham City Council with planning application for the sites redevelopment to be submitted in the coming weeks. The business park, labeled “Chancerygate Business Centre” will provide small industrial units ranging from 1,500 sq ft for lease or sale to local area businesses.

Paul Jenkins, Managing Director of Chancerygate (Business Centre) Ltd:

“This is a very exciting project for us. Our plans will bring to the area a business development which will sustain over 200 full-time jobs.

We want to create for the local community a vibrant new asset bringing employment opportunities to local people in a wide range of businesses.

For over 100 years, the site has occupied an important place in the local community. We now have an opportunity to bring new life to the site.

Given its important place in Aston we want to provide modern accommodation for local businesses, and also new businesses for the area.”

A Birmingham City Council Cabinet spokesman said in response to the proposal:

“We are delighted that so much has been achieved in the short period since the factory sadly closed.

In a few short months proposals have been brought forward which could ultimately create twice as many jobs as there were before the factory shut.

These proposals will play a crucial role, providing much needed jobs and complementing the considerable efforts of the City Council in regenerating Aston and the surrounding area.”

Authors comment: While a lot of good can come out creating new jobs with the construction of a new business complex, the significance of loosing what ought to be considered a site of national historic importance should not be understated. I feel it is a great tragedy that a source of British national pride be torn down only to be replaced with run-of-the-mill 1,500 sq ft warehouse spaces. Rest In Peace HP.

*Sources: The Birmingham Mail, Paul Smith, The Birmingham Branch of the British Nationalist Party’s Blog, BBC News - West Midlands