HP sauce manufacturing moves to Netherlands

The last bottle of HP sauce to be made in the UK rolled off the production line this morning.

Production of the iconic brown condiment ended at the company’s factory in Aston, Birmingham, at 6am, marking the end of 108 years of sauce-making at the site.

Parent company Heinz will now move production to the Netherlands, with the loss of 120 jobs.

Joe Clarke, spokesman for the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) in the West Midlands, said the closure was a devastating blow for the workforce and for Birmingham as a city.

He said: “The plant has been a landmark for 108 years – you could always smell it from miles away. The implications for the workers are terrible. Most of them were looking to spend the rest of their working lives at HP.

“Now they’ll have to re-train, and if you look at the job prospects in manufacturing, they’re not promising. Most of the workers are devastated, and if you look at the savings Heinz will make, it’s a pittance.”

Heinz’s decision last August to move production out of the UK prompted a wave of public support for the factory – nearby businesses started a Save Our Sauce campaign, MPs tried to get the condiment banned from the House of Commons, and even workers at the new factory in the Netherlands objected to the move.

Earlier this week, a protester dressed as John Bull climbed the factory tower to mark the loss of a British institution.

Nigel Dickie, a spokesman for Heinz, said that although it was a sad day for Birmingham, the financial reasons for the move were compelling.

He said: “This decision comes after reviewing 17 different packages during a process lasting months. We simply could not find a way of continuing production at Aston and filling the financial gap.”

He said the move to the Netherlands would save the company £25m (€36.5m) over the next 10 years.

Mr Dickie added that more than half of the workers facing redundancy had already found new jobs.

But the TGWU criticised Heinz’s handling of the workforce, saying the company had offered little support to sacked employees, and that most of the re-training to help staff find new jobs had been organised by the union.

Mr Clarke thanked the public for their support during the campaign to save the factory.