Heinz sells 650 million bottles of tomato ketchup a year, 72 million of them in Britain. Its first UK stockist was Fortnum & Mason and ketchup has traditionally been sold in glass bottles to reassure consumers of its purity.
The company's brands also include Lea & Perrins, WeightWatchers and Linda McCartney vegetarian foods. Among its top products in Britain are baked beans, salad cream, baby food and spaghetti hoops.
Heinz's shareholder register includes Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of George Bush's Democratic challenger John Kerry, who is an heir to the Heinz family fortune through her previous marriage to Henry John Heinz III.
Its main British factory is a 50-acre site at Kitts Green, Wigan, which employs 1,600 people and produces more than one billion cans of baked beans, soups and pasta a year. Heinz employs around 300 people at its Dundalk's plant.
The Heinz 57 Varieties marketing tag came into being in 1892 when the company's co-founder, Henry J Heinz, was riding the New York railway and spotted a poster advertising 21 styles of shoe. He was taken with the ad's odd number and settled on 57 products, even though his company was producing more.
