Product type Pickle
Sauces Country UK Previous owners Premier Foods | Owner Mizkan Introduced 1922 Tagline Bring out the Branston | |
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Branston is a British food brand. It is best known for the original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled chutney first made in 1920 in the village of Branston near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire by Crosse & Blackwell.
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In 2004 the brand was bought by Premier Foods and production was moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Premier Foods sold the brand to Mizkan in 2013. The pickle product sells over 17 million jars a year in the UK.
Original pickle
Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede, carrots, onions and cauliflower pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and spices. In recent years high-fructose corn syrup has replaced sugar in the product sold in the American market. Sugar is still used in the British version.
Branston Pickle is sweet and spicy with a chutney-like consistency, containing chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. It is commonly served as part of a ploughman's lunch, a popular menu item in British pubs. It is also frequently combined with cheddar cheese in sandwiches, and many sandwich shops in the UK offer cheese and pickle as an option. It is available in the standard 'chunky' version, as well as a 'small chunk' variety, which is easier to spread on to sandwiches. Convenient squeezy bottle packs are also in the range, along with a 'smooth' recipe. Branston also has flavoured pickles including Sweet Chilli and Beetroot flavoured pickle.
Brand extension
Walkers once produced a variety of crisps called "Cheese and Branston Pickle".
In October 2005, Premier Foods launched Branston Baked Beans. The marketing and promotion of this product was aimed at challenging Heinz's dominance of the UK baked bean market. This marketing included an advert, featuring a Branston Bean Tin explaining how Branston Beans are very "saucy". Promotional activities included a 'Great British Bean Poll' where members of the public across the country were invited to blind taste both 'the brand leader' (assumed to be Heinz) and Branston. In the poll, 76% of participants picked Branston over the brand leader. Heinz elected to change their recipe in the face of this aggressive activity. Premier Foods have also attempted to leverage the traditional Branston Pickle brand name by producing Branston Relishes in four different flavours: Hot Chilli & Jalapeño, Gherkin, Sweet Onion and Tomato & Red Pepper.
Sale to Mizkan
In late 2012, it was announced that as part of an aggressive debt reduction strategy, Premier Foods would be selling the Branston brand to Japanese food manufacturer Mizkan Group for £92.5m, joining Sarson's vinegar and Hayward's pickled onions as recent Premier Foods to Mizkan brand acquisitions. It is expected that the Bury St. Edmunds plant will continue to manufacture Branston products and staff will transfer to Mizkan.
Availability outside the UK
Branston Pickle is available in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France, Denmark, Singapore (Cold Storage and Market Place), Germany (REWE and Globus Warenhaus), Turkey (Tesco Kipa), the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (Tesco), Belgium (Carrefour Market Etterbeek), Hong Kong (Taste), South Africa, southern Spain (Supersol and Carrefour), Thailand (Chiang Mai, Rimping) and Namibia.