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

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 in the 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 #25 million 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.

HP Facts:

• HP was once dubbed "Wilson’s gravy" after the wife of Harold Wilson, the former Labour Prime Minister, revealed that he believed no meal was complete unless it was flooded with the sauce.
• The original recipe for HP Sauce - which has a malt vinegar base blended with fruit and spices - was devised and developed by one Harry Palmer, from whose initials some believe the name derived.
• HP is also said to stand for Houses of Parliament and a depiction of the Palace of Westminster features on the sauce’s label.
• Nottingham grocer FG Garton began to market HP Sauce in 1903, but sold the recipe and brand for #150 to a Birmingham-based vinegar company which occupied the site of the present day factory at Aston Cross.
• In the 1960s Marty Feldman turned the description on the label (in both French and English) into a song which he sang in French and included on a 1969 album.
• It is estimated that HP Sauce holds 71% of the country’s market in brown sauce.
• Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood hit the headlines last summer when he brandished a bottle of HP Sauce during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons as part of a protest against plans to close Aston Cross.
• HP is usually eaten as an adjunct to hot or cold savoury food, in particular a traditional English breakfast, but can also be used as an ingredient in soups or stews.
• The Aston Cross factory was once bisected by the A38(M) and boasted a pipeline carrying vinegar over the motorway.
• An online petition on the Downing Street website urging Tony Blair to keep the manufacture of HP Sauce British has so far attracted 372 signatures.