The Princes Name Behind The Jar
For this particular crab paste, there is no strongly sourced product-origin story that says exactly when it first appeared or who first put the recipe into a Princes jar. So the honest heritage here is the story of the Princes brand family behind the modern packet. In 1964, Princes was acquired by J Bibby and Sons, the firm associated with Trex. In 1973, the combined business was sold to Italy’s Buitoni group, before Buitoni was acquired by Nestlé in 1988 and Princes was sold to Mitsubishi Corporation in 1989. By 2013, Princes was described as the UK’s largest supplier of tinned food. That is the tidy version, naturally. Grocery history often looks less like a family tree and more like a drawer full of old receipts.
Before The Corporate Shuffle
The older story is rather more Atlantic. Princes traces its roots to 1880, when William Muirhead Simpson, a Briton, and Frank Roberts, a Canadian, founded a partnership in Liverpool. The business initially imported tinned lobster from Canada, which gives a seafood jar on a British shelf a rather neat circular feeling for shoppers now living in Canada. The firm traded as Simpson Roberts, and the Princes brand name was introduced in 1900. By 1915, the company was handling a very large share of the world’s lobster trade. That does not make this crab paste a Victorian lobster relic, but it does place Princes’ seafood credentials in a long, seafaring line.
Liverpool, Tins, And Sensible Food
Liverpool mattered because it was a great Atlantic port, built for goods arriving from far away and heading into British shops and kitchens. Canned fish, meat, fruit and vegetables suited that world rather well. They travelled, stored, stacked and fed people without asking too many questions. Princes later became closely associated with Liverpool, and the company has been based in the Royal Liver Building since 1982. It is a grand address for tins and jars, but Britain has always had a strange talent for giving very ordinary groceries a backdrop of civic drama.
Why Crab Paste Stuck Around
Fish paste is a very particular British habit. It sits somewhere between thrift, convenience and childhood memory. Spread thinly on buttered toast, tucked into white bread, or placed beside a few crackers, crab paste belongs to lunchboxes, grandparents’ kitchens and corner shops where the shelves seemed to contain everything required for a week if you were not too fussy. The appeal is partly the taste, partly the texture, and partly the fact that it is ready immediately. No cooking, no ceremony, no performance. Just a small jar doing the thing it has always done.
For British Cupboards In Canada
For British expats in Canada, Princes Crab Paste can feel oddly specific in the best possible way. It is not the first thing people mention when talking about food from home, but it is exactly the sort of item they suddenly remember when building a proper cupboard: tea, beans, pickle, soup, and yes, a little jar of seafood paste for toast. It carries the memory of quick lunches after school, Nan’s cupboard, seaside sandwiches and that very British confidence that almost anything can go on bread. Quietly practical, faintly nostalgic, and available through The Great British Shop for the people who know why it matters.
