Bernard Matthews

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Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd.

Type	Limited
Founded	1950
Headquarters	Great Witchingham, Norfolk, England
Key people	Bernard Matthews, Founder
Industry	Farming, and Food Products
Products	Food, Products
Revenue	£335.5m (2008 Turnover)
Employees	2,575
Website	www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com

This article is about the business. For the person, see Bernard Trevor Matthews.

Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd is a British farming and food products business, which specialises in the farming of turkeys. Founded by Bernard Trevor Matthews in 1950, the company is headquartered in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and has 56 farms throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire farming nearly 7 million turkeys each year.^[1] All the company’s turkey eggs are hatched at their own hatchery at Great Witchingham, Norfolk and have been for over 55 years. The company breeds and rears both indoor and free range turkeys on its farms, making Bernard Matthews an integrated agricultural business.

Contents 1 The business 2 Products 3 Key dates 4 Controversies 4.1 Turkey Twizzlers 4.2 Animal welfare 5 Avian flu outbreak 6 References 7 External links

[edit] The business

Bernard Matthews farms nearly 7 million turkeys every year in the UK. Bernard Matthews is the largest poultry farmer and food company in East Anglia, with 56 turkey farms and two production sites located in Norfolk and Suffolk. BM Holdings is split into three independent companies; Bernard Matthews Farms in the UK, Bernard Matthews Oldenburg in Germany and SaGa Foods in Hungary. Noel Bartram is Group Chief Executive for Bernard Matthews Holdings. In June 2009 Bernard Matthews Farms appointed Jeff Halliwell Managing Director of its UK business. ^[2]

All farms are Quality British Turkey (“QBT”) and Assured Foods (Red Tractor) ^[3] certified and both production sites in Norfolk and Suffolk have ISO4001 accreditation, meeting the British Standard for the management of environmental risks. ^[4] The company farms and factories are open to regular unannounced inspections from independent bodies such as Defra, the RSPCA and representatives of all major UK supermarket retailers at any time during the year. ^{[5] [6]}

In July 2008 Bernard Matthews unveiled details of its business recovery plan and brand relaunch ^[7]. This plan aimed to reposition the company for growth and included three key elements: refocusing back on British Turkey farming and production, making products that claim to better meet the needs of consumers today, and championing British Agriculture. ^[8]

In 2008, Bernard Matthews recorded an operating profit of £857,000 from continuing operations (2007: £9.6m operating loss). ^[9]

[edit] Products

The company offers a range of cooked, fresh and frozen British turkey, including products such as oven ready whole birds, joints, formed portions, cooked meats and meal accompaniments, which accounts for over 90% of the business. Bernard Matthews also produces chicken products which are made with meat sourced from established partners in South America.

Bernard Matthews farms and produces turkey for many of the leading major leading UK grocery supermarket chains for use under their own retail brands and also for businesses supplying the out of home foodservice market.

Under the Golden Norfolk Turkey banner, Bernard Matthews Farms provides a frozen turkey range including whole birds in a variety of sizes, plus crowns and joints, basted and stuffed. New products under the Farms brand for 2009 include several new seasonings, and an apricot and date stuffing.^[10]

[edit] Key dates

• 1950 - Company founded
• 1955 - Its headquarters were moved to its present location, Great Witchingham Hall near Norwich.^[11]
• 1960 - Bernard Matthews entered the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest turkey farmer in Europe.^[12]
• 1971 - The Company was publicly listed.^[13]
• 1980 - The Company launched its first TV commercial featuring Turkey Breast Roast, with Matthews himself introducing the famous 'Bootiful' catchphrase in his thick Norfolk accent.^[14]
• 2000 - Bernard Matthews successfully fought off a take-over bid from US food giant Sara Lee.^[15]
• 2001 - The Company was bought back by the Matthews family and taken private again.^[16]
• 2006 - Two contract workers convicted of animal cruelty for playing 'baseball' with live turkeys.^[17]
• 2007 - The Company's farm in Holton suffers an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
• 2007 - The Company's factory B plant closes and staff moved to A plant causing many to leave or be relocated at its parent plant up the road.
• 2008 - The Company unveiled details of its business recovery plan and relaunch. This included a new Company logo and all turkeys being 100% British.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Turkey Twizzlers

One of Bernard Matthews' formed-meat products, 'Turkey Twizzlers', became a subject of debate in January 2005, when they were singled out for particular criticism by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in his television series Jamie's School Dinners. The product became an emblem of the mass-produced processed food that Oliver wanted to remove from schools. In the wake of the programme, several major catering organisations announced that they would no longer serve Turkey Twizzlers in schools.^[18] Bernard Matthews discontinued the product in 2005.

[edit] Animal welfare

On 7 September, 2006, two contract workers were convicted of animal cruelty after being covertly filmed by a member of staff from Hillside Animal Sanctuary, playing 'baseball' with live turkeys. The two men were sentenced to a 200-hour community service which was later criticised as being 'derisory' by some animal welfare organisations.^[17][19] Palmer's and Allan's defence lawyer, Simon Nicholls, stated that their actions were part of a ‘culture’ at the Norfolk plant and, describing the conditions in the unit as "appalling", said: "You can see why people move to an organic, more open type of farming." ^[20] An RSPCA inspector said it was the worst case of cruelty to farm animals of which he had heard ^[21] A vet, after seeing the footage, said it was the ‘most hideous and blatant’ abuse he had seen in 25 years.^[22]

[edit] Avian flu outbreak

The 2007 Bernard Matthews H5N1 outbreak was an occurrence of avian flu in England that began on January 30, 2007. The infection was caused by the H5N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus and occurred at one of Bernard Matthews' farms in Holton, Suffolk. A range of precautions were instituted including a large cull of turkeys, the imposition of segregation zones, and a disinfection programme for the plant.

It emerged in a highly critical report from Defra that there was a series of biosecurity failings at the Holton plant, some of which were drawn to the company's attention in the past.^[23]

Though the cause of the outbreak has not been determined, Bernard Matthews regularly transports turkeys and turkey products between the UK and its plant in Hungary, and the H5N1 bird flu strains found in Hungary and Britain were effectively genetically identical.^[24]

Consequences of the outbreak included bans by a number of countries on the importation of poultry from Britain, a sharp fall in sales of Bernard Matthews products resulting in workers being laid off and a collapse in confidence in the brand.^[25]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Red Tractor
• British Poultry Council