A forlorn complaint about the disappearance of Horne’s BBQ Sauce reveals that even six months after the local bottler, Select Foods of nearby Sunrise Avenue, cancelled the long-time staple, it is still getting complaints about the end of the product. Select took four calls before noon Wednesday asking where a shopper might find a bottle of Horne’s. The answer is nowhere.
Select Foods, you may recall, was part of the French’s (Canadian) Ketchup sensation two years ago after it was learned that Heinz had abandoned Leamington tomatoes. Then Loblaws took French’s ketchup off the shelf. The national outcry caused French’s to cleverly sign up Select Foods to make and bottle ketchup made with the Leamington beauties. But why would Select stop making a staple like Horne’s some 75 years after its creation? It appears that while popular, Horne’s could not compete for space in the North York facility against French’s. That plus a greater emphasis on wholesale distribution as opposed to retail deliveries seems to have forced the decision to cancel Horne’s. Many cooks recall it from their childhood.
