Bernard Matthews

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Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd.

Type	Limited
Founded	1950
Headquarters	Norwich, Norfolk, England
Key people	Bernard Matthews, Founder
Industry	Farming, and Food Products
Products	Food, Products
Revenue	£270m (2007/8 Turnover)
Operating income	?
Net income	?
Employees	>4450
Website	Official Site

Bernard Matthews was founded by Bernard Trevor Matthews in 1950. Bernard Matthews is a British turkey farmer headquartered in Norwich in Norfolk, England, United Kingdom, with 56 farms throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire.^[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. The Company is also the largest free range turkey farmer in the UK.

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 and ham products which currently use imported meat. The company has committed to reviewing the sourcing of its ham and chicken products with a target of the end of 2010 for all of them to use 100% British meat.

Contents 1 The Business 2 New Product Launches 3 Bernard Matthews Supporting the Local Community 4 Key Dates 5 Controversies 5.1 Turkey Twizzlers 5.2 Animal Welfare 6 Avian flu outbreak 7 References 8 External links

[edit] The Business

Bernard Matthews claims to farm 7 million turkeys every year in the UK, fed on a cereal-based diet from the Company's own feed mills in Norfolk, containing wheat sourced in East Anglia. They claim not to use any hormones or growth promoters nor battery farm turkeys - although most of its turkeys are intensively-farmed, indoor-reared birds.

In July 2008 Bernard Matthews claims to have unveiled details of its business recovery plan and brand relaunch. This plan claims to reposition the company for growth and has 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.

In 2007, Bernard Matthews recorded a 9.5 per cent drop in sales for continuing operations to £326 million as a result of the outbreak of the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza. Wikipedia claims that this outbreak resulted in widespread publicising of the intensive-farming conditions under which most of the company's turkeys are reared. The company claims to expect to return to profitable growth during 2008 following a new marketing and advertising campaign from the Autumn.

[edit] New Product Launches

Big Green Tick

Bernard Matthews Farms launched a ‘better for you’ range of frozen turkey products under the sub-brand ‘Big Green Tick’ in August 2008. These products are made from 100% British turkey breast meat and are claimed to be 70% lower in saturated fat than other similar products on the market.

Big Green Tick was the first range to appear under the new ‘Bernard Matthews Farms’ branding and all the products in this range will carry the bold Big Green Tick logo along with selling claims such as ‘Made from 100% breast meat’ and ‘No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives’. ^[2]

Bernard Mathews Farms re-launched its entire cooked meats range in September 2008, featuring a new brand identity and a simplified portfolio of formed, cooked meats.

[edit] Bernard Matthews Supporting the Local Community

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.

Bernard Matthews claims to have an on-going commitment to ensure that all farming and production processes have the minimum impact on the local community and their environment and strive to make a positive difference to the lives of the local people. It also claims to recognise the responsibility the Company has in supporting local agriculture. As such, Bernard Matthews supports all initiatives, which develop and enhance the industry it operates within.

[edit] Key Dates

• 1950 - Company founded
• 1955 - Its headquarters were moved to its present location, Great Witchingham Hall near Norwich.^[3]
• 1960 - Bernard Matthews entered the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest turkey farmer in Europe.^[4]
• 1971 - The Company was publicly listed.^[5]
• 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.^[6]
• 2000 - Bernard Matthews successfully fought off a take-over bid from US food giant Sara Lee.^[7]
• 2001 - The Company was bought back by the Matthews family and taken private again.^[8]
• 2006 - Two employees convicted of animal cruelty for playing 'baseball' with live turkeys.^[9]
• 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 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.^[10] Bernard Matthews discontinued the product in 2005 and has no plans in the future to return to it.

[edit] Animal Welfare

On September 7, 2006, two employees 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.^[11][12]

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." ^[13]

An RSPCA inspector said it was the worst case of cruelty to farm animals of which he had heard ^[14]

A vet, after seeing the footage, said it was the ‘most hideous and blatant’ abuse he had seen in 25 years. ^[15]

[edit] Avian flu outbreak

On Tuesday 30 January 2007 the first ever case of industrial Avian Flu occurred at Bernard Matthews’ Holton site in Suffolk on the former WW2 airfield RAF Halesworth.The infection was caused by the H5N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus.

Operationally, Bernard Matthews was well prepared for a crisis such as AI. The company had an emergency operational committee in place, had rehearsed such a crisis independently and jointly with the Home Office.

Bernard Matthews and DEFRA considered a number of options in terms of culling the entire 160,000 turkey flock at Holton Farm. For reasons of speed, efficiency, and the prompt management of the crisis, Bernard Matthews proposed for culling the flock via use of its factory based controlled atmosphere stunning unit was accepted. This reduced the timescale of the entire culling from DEFRA’s projected 5–15 days to an achieved 47 hours.

Despite rigorous inspection the source of the infection remains unknown. Bernard Matthews stopped importing turkey meat from Hungary in February 2007.^[16]

It is claimed that all Bernard Matthews farms are fully bio-secure at all times.

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Bernard Matthews