Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Food |
Founded | 1875 in Aston, Birmingham [1] |
Founder | Edwin Samson Moore |
Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
Area served | Europe |
Products | HP Sauce, Daddies sauces, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce |
Owner | The Kraft Heinz Company |
Parent | H. J. Heinz Company |
Divisions | HP Foods, Amoy Food UK, Lea & Perrins |
Website | hpsauce |
HP Foods Limited, formerly based in Birmingham, England was best known as the producer of HP, Lea & Perrins, and Daddies sauce brands. [2] It was also the UK licensee, from Heinz, of Chinese food and condiment brand Amoy Food. [2] [3]
Formerly the Midlands Vinegar Company [1] and Smedley HP Foods Limited, it was acquired by Imperial Foods, a division of Imperial Group. Edward Eastwood and his nephew Edwin Samson Moore established the Midland Vinegar Company at Aston, Birmingham in 1875. [2]
In 1939, the Birmingham Gazette noted that H.P. Sauce Ltd. also produced H.P. Tomato Ketchup, H.P. Salad Cream, H.P. Mayonnaise and the sweet pickle, Pickante. The company's wholly owned subsidiaries included the Midland Vinegar Co., F.G. Garton & Co., Mallors (Worcester Sauce), [lower-alpha 1] Tower Yeast Company, and Lea and Perrins. [5]
HP Foods Ltd was retained by Imperial's parent company Hanson plc even after the demerger of the Imperial Group. It was sold to Groupe Danone SA in 1988 for £199 million. [2] It was sold by Danone to Heinz in June 2005 for £470 million. [2] However, in October of that year the takeover was referred by the UK's Office of Fair Trading to the Competition Commission. [6] After a review the Competition Commission approved the takeover and Heinz started integrating this new company into the business.
In 2007, the Aston factory was demolished, and production of HP and Daddies sauce brands was moved to the Netherlands. [1] [7] [8] Bottling of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce was returned to Worcester, having been moved in 2005 to the Aston factory. During this time, the sauce continued to be manufactured but not bottled at the Midlands Road site.
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing brand and former company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six continents, and markets these products in more than 200 countries and territories. The company claims to have 150 number-one or number-two brands worldwide. Heinz ranked first in ketchup in the US with a market share in excess of 50%; the Ore-Ida label held 46% of the frozen potato sector in 2003.
Worcestershire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town.
Worcestershire sauce or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment invented by the pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century. The inventors went on to form the company Lea & Perrins.
Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for various different varieties of ketchup contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes or walnuts, among other ingredients.
HP Sauce is a British brown sauce, the main ingredients of which are tomatoes and tamarind extract. It was named after London's Houses of Parliament. After making its first appearance on British dinner tables in the late 19th century, HP Sauce went on to become an icon of British culture. It was the best-selling brand of brown sauce in the UK in 2005, with 73.8% of the retail market. The sauce was originally produced in the United Kingdom, but is now made by Heinz in the Netherlands.
Amoy Food Limited is a manufacturer of cooking sauces and condiments in Hong Kong. Its products, which now include foodstuffs such as frozen foods and instant foods for heating in a microwave oven, are sold around the world. It was acquired in 2018 by CITIC Capital, a subsidiary of the CITIC Group.
Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine, and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Sweet and sour sauce remains popular in Asian and Western cuisines.
Heinz 57 is a synecdoche of the historical advertising slogan "57 Varieties" by the H. J. Heinz Company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It was developed from the marketing campaign that told consumers about the numerous products available from the Heinz company.
Daddies is a brand of ketchup and brown sauce in the United Kingdom.
Steak sauce is a tangy sauce commonly served as a condiment for beef in the United States. Two of its major producers are British companies, and the sauce is similar to the "brown sauce" of British cuisine.
Lea & Perrins (L&P) is a United Kingdom-based subsidiary of Kraft Heinz, originating in Worcester, England where it continues to operate. It is best known as the manufacturer of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, a condiment first invented and sold in 1837 by chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins from Broad Street, Worcester.
Henderson's Relish is a condiment produced in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is similar in appearance to Worcestershire sauce, but contains no anchovies. It is made of water, sugar and spirit vinegar with a selection of spices and colouring. It is gluten free, suitable for vegans and is approved by the Vegetarian Society.
Barbecue sauce is a sauce used as a marinade, basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs and chicken. It is an ubiquitous condiment in the Southern United States and is used on many other foods as well.
Diamond Bus Ltd., trading as Diamond West Midlands, and also operating under the West Midlands Bus brand identity, is a bus operator in the West Midlands. It is a subsidiary of Rotala.
First Midland Red Buses, trading as First Worcester, is a bus company operating services in Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
Brown sauce is a condiment commonly served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally dark brown in colour. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to that of Worcestershire sauce.
The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Company co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world with over $26.0 billion in annual sales as of 2021.