32 classic 'British' brands that aren't actually British
HP is the famous brown sauce of the Houses of Parliament (hence the name). Nevertheless, it is owned by Americans — Heinz purchased it in 2005.
House of Fraser is owned by the Sanpower Group, a Chinese corporation that bought it last year for £450 million ($716 million). Before that it was owned by the Icelandic group Baugur.
What could be more British than Sarsons vinegar on a plate of fish and chips? A Japanese vinegar manufacturer, Mizkan, bought Sarsons in 2012 for £41 million ($66 million).
Branston Pickle, one half of the iconic cheese and pickle sandwhich, was also acquired by Mizkan, in 2013 for £92.5 million ($147 million).
Walker Crisps make 56% of all crisps and popcorn sold in Britain. The brand was bought by PepsiCo back in 1989. (In America, Walkers are called Lays.)
Weetabix, the famous breakfast cereal, has been in Chinese hands for 3 years. Shanghai-based consortium Bright Food bought it in May 2012.
Hartley's Jam was bought by American corporation Hain Celestial in 2012, for £200 million ($320 million).
The car manufacturer Jaguar was bought by India's Tata in 2008. Before that it was owned by Ford — based in Detroit, Michigan.
Manchester United plays in England's Premier League and is one of the most famous football clubs in the world. But United is owned by the Glazer family of the US. Plenty of other big clubs from Leicester to Liverpool are owned by foreign investors.
A third of the milk drunk in Britain is owned by foreign companies: Wiseman Milk is now part of the German group Müller, which bought it in 2012.
Cadbury has a similarly dominant position in the British chocolate market. It was bought by Kraft in 2010 and is now incorporated into Mondelez International, a US company.
British law states that everyone must eat a Terry's Chocolate Orange at Christmas. But Terry's is also owned by Mondelez, and the orange factory is in Poland.
Tetley Tea has traded on its English heritage for decades. However, it is owned by India's Tata Global Beverages.
Another Indian group owns Typhoo Tea — Apeejay Surrendra bought it in 2005 for £80 million ($127 million).
Newcastle Brown Ale was purchased by Heineken of the Netherlands in 2008. The beer is produced in Yorkshire in the same factory as John Smith's, also owned by the Dutch.
Bass was one of the first 30 companies to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was bought by Interbrew in 2000, and it is now part of America's AB-InBev.
For many people, Beefeater Gin means London and the Tower of London, but the French group Pernod Ricard has controlled it since 1987.
The same company owns Chivas Regal, which claims to be crafted by the oldest distillery in Scotland.
Glenlivet, an icon of Scotch single malts, is the best-selling whisky in the US (and owned by Pernod Ricard since 2000).
Scottish Power has been controlled by the Spanish multi-utility Iberdrola since 2006.
Many British utilities are actually owned abroad. nPower, for example, was bought by the German provider RWE in 2002.
So is Thames Water, which has been controlled by the Macquarie Group of Australia since 2006. This is the Thames barrier south of London.
Northumbrian Water Group was bought by Chung Kong Infrastructure in 2011.
Mobile networks are not exempt. O2 was bought by Telefònica, a Spanish group, in 2005 and sold to Chinese group Hutchison Whampoa earlier this year for £10.25 billion. Hutchison Whampoa also owns the Three network.
EE is the largest mobile network in Britain. It is a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and Orange SA. (Orange used to be a British company, before it was bought by France Telecom in 2000.)
Even Heathrow Airport is owned by foreigners: a consortium of international investors, lead by the Spanish Grupo Ferrovial, has controlled it since 2006.
TfL is controlled by the Greater London Authority, but its famous red double-deckers operate through international partners. The biggest, Arriva, is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway operator.
It is hard to forget that Britain's "paper of record", The Times, is owned by the Australian-American Rupert Murdoch.
Hamley's was also owned by Icelandic group Baugur (the former owner of House of Fraser remember), before being sold to the French Ludendo Groupe for £60 million ($95 million) in 2012.
ASDA has been a Wal-Mart subsidiary since 1999. The American giant bought it for £6.7 billion ($10.7 billion).
Umbro has passed from one foreign corporation to another. The US's Iconix Brand Group took it from Nike in 2012 for £141 million ($225 million).
Boots UK was bought by Walgreens, the biggest pharmacy company in the world, for £5.65 billion ($9 billion) last year. It was previously owned by Stefano Pessina, an Italian entrepreneur.
This post was originally written by Stefano Pozzebon.
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