Princes Tuna & Mayonnaise Paste - 75g

Not A Product-Origin Tale, But A Brand One

There is no firmly sourced product-level origin story for this particular tuna and mayonnaise paste, so it would be daft to pretend there is a dramatic founding moment involving one heroic sandwich. What we can say is that the modern jar sits within the wider Princes world of canned fish, pantry goods and sandwich fillings. That matters, because the brand name on the label carries a long history in British cupboards, even when the individual jar’s own paper trail is more modest.

The Princes Name And The Tinned Fish Thread

Princes traces its roots to 1880, when William Muirhead Simpson and Canadian Frank Roberts founded a partnership that began by importing tinned lobster from Canada. The business traded as Simpson Roberts before creating several brands, with the Princes name introduced in 1900. Its early life was closely tied to canned fish, which makes a tuna-based paste feel very much at home in the family, even if this exact jar arrived later in the story.

The Corporate Bit, Kept To A Sensible Amount

In 1973, the combined business was sold to Italy’s Buitoni group; Buitoni was later acquired by Nestlé in 1988, and Princes was then sold to Mitsubishi Corporation in 1989. By 2013, the company was described as the UK’s largest supplier of tinned food. In 2011, Princes also acquired two East Anglian canning operations, along with the Crosse & Blackwell and Farrow’s brands from Premier Foods. That is quite a lot of boardroom shuffling for a little jar of paste, but it helps explain how Princes became such a familiar name across many British pantry shelves.

Liverpool, Canada, And A Neat Little Circle

The company has long been associated with Liverpool, a city whose port made it a natural place for importing and distributing canned goods in the Victorian era. There is also a pleasing Canadian connection in the brand’s earliest trade, since the original partnership imported tinned lobster from Canada. For British expats now buying a Princes jar back in Canada, that is a tidy loop. Grocery history does enjoy the occasional joke, even if it takes more than a century to land.

Why This Jar Still Makes Sense

Tuna and mayonnaise paste belongs to a very particular British cupboard logic. It is useful, familiar and faintly nostalgic, especially for anyone who remembers small jars turning up beside sliced white bread, packed lunches, caravan holidays or a grandparent’s kitchen shelf where everything had its place. It is not glamorous, which is rather the point. It spreads, it fills a gap, and it tastes like the kind of practical British food people miss more than they expected. For shoppers in Canada looking for that exact little jar-shaped memory, The Great British Shop is a quiet sign-off from home.