Limited Supply: HP Sauce is back on sale at one retailer in SA

One of South Africa’s favourite condiments, HP Sauce is available at certain Pick n Pay stores in South Africa.

A local favourite

After it was announced that the familiar Houses of Parliament bottles will no longer be available in South Africa, Pick n Pay managed to source a limited supply of the product.

“We know how much some of our customers are missing HP sauce,” a Pick n Pay spokesperson told Business Insider SA. “So we have managed to source a limited supply of the product until the company who imports HP sauce confirms their new local distributor,” Pick n Pay said. While some of its stores already stock the brown sauce, the retailer said customers could expect to see HP sauce on more of its shelves “in the next coming weeks”.

The end of the iconic HP Sauce in SA

According to Times Live, more than 28 million bottles of the iconic HP Sauce are consumed annually across the world, but licensing fees saw it disappear from shelves in SA earlier this year.

According to the publication, Pioneer Foods — now owned by PepsiCo — had been procuring, distributing and selling Lea & Perrins and HP Sauce under licence from Kraft Heinz, in SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia for many years, but those licences expired last May and were not reviewed, said Mandy Murphy, foods executive at PepsiCo SA. Nor will they be.

International Deals

Other local stores are also now working with international retailers to procure the sauce.

“Shoprite is working with international suppliers to see if it can be sourced from the UK and will update consumers on the progress,” a spokesperson from Shoprite said, while Woolworths confirmed that they do not have stock.

“I can confirm that supply of HP sauce has not yet been restored, as the licence has still not been awarded to a distributor in SA,” Silinidile Gumede told Business Insider on behalf of Woolworths.