Text 13135, 90 rader
Skriven 2007-03-17 00:29:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: The bastids!
====================
Last bottle of traditional HP sauce made in England

JANE WARDELL of Associated Press

LONDON: More than 100 years of British tradition came to an end Friday
as the final bottle of HP brown sauce, a popular alternative to ketchup,
rolled off a production line at a factory in central England.

HP's U.S. owner, H.J. Heinz Co., stuck by plans to switch production of
the sauce to the Netherlands to save money, despite a high-profile
campaign to keep it in Britain that saw protests outside the U.S.
Embassy in London and lawmakers brandishing bottles of the condiment in
the House of Commons.

A staple that is smothered over everything from fish and chips to the
traditional English fry-up breakfast of sausages, bacon, baked beans and
eggs, its advertising slogan proudly proclaims it is "The Official Sauce
of Great Britain."

Its distinctive tall bottle carries a picture of the Houses of
Parliament on a blue and red label - giving rise to its name - a feature
that some protesters say the sauce should now be stripped of.

The decision to close the plant in Aston, Birmingham, in favour of a new
factory in Elst, in the Netherlands, will also cost 120 jobs. "The plant
has been a landmark for 108 years. You could always smell it from miles
away," said Joe Clarke, a spokesman for the Transport and General
Workers' Union. "The implications for the workers are terrible," Mr.
Clarke added. "Most of them were looking to spend the rest of their
working lives at HP."

The sauce, a tangy mix of malt vinegar, dates, sugar, apples, tomato and
spices, was invented by a Nottingham grocer and the recipe was sold to
the Midland Vinegar Company in the late 1800s. In the 1960s, it became
known as "Wilson's Gravy" after the wife of Prime Minister Harold Wilson
let slip that his one weakness was that "he will drown everything in
HP."

There was immediate and strong opposition when Heinz announced its plan
last August. Local businesses launched a "save our sauce campaign" and
lawmakers tried to get the condiment banned from food outlets in the
House of Commons, with some waving bottles around during a session of
the Prime Minister's question time. Clare Short, a Labour lawmaker who
quit the Cabinet over Iraq, took up the cause, calling for Britons to
boycott Heinz products. "That's what they deserve," she said. "It would
give them a real fright. If we can make them reconsider that would be
brilliant." Earlier this week, a protester dressed as John Bull, the
top-hat-wearing symbol of a traditional Englishman, climbed a tower at
the Aston factory to hang protest banners. Even workers at the new
factory in the Netherlands objected to the move in a show of solidarity
with workers in England. But the various protests were all to no avail.

Heinz, which bought HP from French group Danone in June 2005, said the
new factory would save the company $50 million over the next 10 years
and claimed that half the workers from the Aston factory had already
found new jobs. "This decision comes after reviewing 17 different
packages during a process lasting months," said Nigel Dickie, a
spokesman for Heinz. "We simply could not find a way of continuing
production at Aston and filling the financial gap."

The HP sauce currently holds 71 per cent of the $82-million brown-sauce
market and Heinz is launching a $3.1-million (U.S.) marketing campaign
this month to keep consumers. The campaign will include nationwide TV
spots, door drops of samples and coupons as the company invests around
$8-million into the iconic brand. But the advertising campaign has only
increased the anger of opponents to the factory move. "It is ironic that
they couldn't afford to invest to keep the plant open," said John
Jordan, a Transport and General Workers' Union official for the local
area. "Now they are pouring millions into promoting the product because
of damage to the brand."

-x-

They should fire the bean counters who review 17 different packages, the
spokespeople and the advertizing people and use the money saved to
continue making the sauce the same as they always have; it is an icon
that needs no advertizing. Spending $8 million to save $5M. Idiocy.


Cheers

Jim, in Yellowknife




... Marketers are shameless and whorelike and borderline insane
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