HP Foods

Type	Private
Founded	1875 in Aston, Birmingham[1]
Founder(s)	Edwin Samson Moore
Headquarters	Hayes, UK
Area served	Europe
Industry	Food
Products	HP Sauce, Daddies sauces, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
Parent	H. J. Heinz Company
Divisions	HP Foods, Amoy Food UK, Lea & Perrins
Website	www.hpfoods.com

HP Foods Limited, formerly based in Birmingham, United Kingdom was best known as the producer of HP, Lea & Perrins and Daddies sauce brands.^[2] It was also the UK licensee 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. 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.^[4] After a review the Competition Commission approved the takeover and Heinz started integrating this new company into the business.

In 2007, the iconic Aston, Birmingham factory was demolished, and production of HP and Daddies sauce brands was moved to the Netherlands.^[5][6][1] 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.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Brown sauce
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Tomato ketchup

[edit] External links

• HP Foods