About HP Sauce
HP Sauce is Britain's most iconic brown sauce, a condiment so embedded in national culture that it appears on dining tables across the country with 28 million bottles consumed annually. Created in 1884 by Frederick Gibson Garton at his pickling factory in New Basford, Nottingham, the sauce takes its famous name from the Houses of Parliament after reportedly being served at a restaurant within Westminster. The distinctive bottle, featuring a lithograph of London landmarks including Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Bridge, has graced British breakfast tables for well over a century. Made with tomatoes, malt vinegar and molasses, HP's unique tangy-sweet flavour profile has made it the essential accompaniment to full English breakfasts, bacon sandwiches and countless other British favourites. The brand captured 73.8% of the UK brown sauce market in 2005. HP Sauce earned the informal nickname "Wilson's gravy" in the 1960s and 70s, after Mary Wilson, wife of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, revealed that her husband would "drown everything with HP Sauce." This political connection, combined with the Houses of Parliament imagery, cemented HP's status as a quintessentially British institution that transcends mere condiment status. After passing through several owners including the Midlands Vinegar Company, Imperial Tobacco and Danone, HP Sauce became part of Kraft Heinz in 2005. Though manufacturing controversially moved from Birmingham's historic Aston factory to the Netherlands in 2007, HP Sauce remains a beloved British grocery staple, available at every major UK supermarket and exported worldwide to satisfy British expat cravings.


