Bernard Matthews Farms
| Type | Limited |
|---|---|
| Industry | Farming, and Food Products |
| Founded | 1950 |
| Headquarters | Great Witchingham, Norfolk, England |
| Key people | Bernard Matthews |
| Products | Food, Products |
| Revenue | £335.5m (2008 Turnover) |
| Employees | 2,575 |
| Website | www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com |
Bernard Matthews Farms Ltd is a British farming and food products business, which specialises in the farming of turkeys. Founded by Bernard Matthews in 1950, as Bernard Matthews Foods Ltd, 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] The company breeds and rears both indoor and free range turkeys on its farms, making Bernard Matthews an integrated agricultural business.
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[edit] The business
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]
The company is Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor) accredited.[3] The production sites in Norfolk and Suffolk have ISO 14001 accreditation, meeting the British Standard for the management of environmental risks.[citation needed]
In July 2008 Bernard Matthews unveiled details of its business recovery plan and brand relaunch.[4] This plan aimed to reposition the company and included three key elements: refocusing on British Turkey farming and production, making products that claim to better meet the needs of consumers today, and championing British agriculture.[5]
In 2008, Bernard Matthews recorded an operating profit of £857,000 from continuing operations (2007: £9.6m operating loss).[6]
In January 2010, Bernard Matthews resigned from the post of Chairman, a decision which coincided with his 80th Birthday. It was announced on 26 November 2010 that Bernard Matthews had died at the age of 80 years old.
[edit] Products
The company produces a range of cooked, fresh and frozen British turkey, including products such as oven-ready whole birds, joints, cooked re-formed 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 partners in South America.
Bernard Matthews Farms produces turkey for 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" brand, 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 introduced in 2009 included several new seasonings, and an apricot and date stuffing.[7]
[edit] Key dates
- 1950 – Company founded
- 1955 – Its headquarters were moved to its present location, Great Witchingham Hall near Norwich.[8]
- 1960 – Bernard Matthews entered the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest turkey farmer in Europe.[9]
- 1971 – The company was publicly listed.[10]
- 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.[11]
- 2000 – Bernard Matthews successfully fought off a take-over bid from US food giant Sara Lee.[12]
- 2001 – The company was bought back by the Matthews family and taken private again.[13]
- 2006 – Two contract workers were convicted of animal cruelty for playing 'baseball' with live turkeys.[14]
- 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 – In July, the company re-branded from Bernard Matthews Foods to Bernard Matthews Farms and stated that all its turkey products would be made with British turkey from its own farms.[15]
- 2010 – In April, Bernard Matthews began a new advertising campaign, bringing back its 'Bootiful' catchphrase that was previously used between 1980 and 2007.[16]
- 2010 – 25 November, the founder, Bernard Matthews, died.
[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 school meals. In the wake of the programme, several major catering organisations announced that they would no longer serve Turkey Twizzlers in schools.[17] 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.[14][18] 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." [19] An RSPCA inspector said it was the worst case of cruelty to farm animals of which he had heard [20] A vet, after seeing the footage, said it was the ‘most hideous and blatant’ abuse he had seen in 25 years.[21]
[edit] Avian flu outbreak
The 2007 Bernard Matthews H5N1 outbreak was an occurrence of avian flu in England that began on 30 January 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 had been drawn to the company's attention in the past.[22]
Though the cause of the outbreak has not been determined, Bernard Matthews regularly transported 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.[23]
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.[24]
[edit] References
- ^ "Company history". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com/history/. Retrieved 2009-10-12.[dead link]
- ^ "The Grocer Magazine". http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=200508. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ "http://www.redtractor.org.uk/site/REDT/Templates/GeneralNews.aspx?pageid=53&cc=GB". Red Tractor. http://www.redtractor.org.uk/site/REDT/Templates/GeneralNews.aspx?pageid=53&cc=GB. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- ^ "Financial Times Article". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3267662-5a7e-11dd-bf96-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ "Financial Times Article". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c69bc4c0-5a7f-11dd-bf96-000077b07658.html. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ Oct 2009 15:34:58:953&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=search "Evening News 24 Article". http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&itemid=NOED28 Oct 2009 15:34:58:953&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=search. Retrieved 2009-11-26.[dead link]
- ^ "The Grocer. Bernard Matthews new products". http://grocerytrader.co.uk/?p=3961. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ "Company history: The 50s". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthews.com/CompanyHistory50.asp.
- ^ "Company history: The 60s". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthews.com/CompanyHistory60.asp.
- ^ "Company history: The 70s". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthews.com/CompanyHistory70.asp.
- ^ "Company history: The 80s". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthews.com/CompanyHistory80.asp.
- ^ "Sara Lee pulls out of Bernard Matthews bidding". http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=39728-sara-lee-pulls.
- ^ "Company history: The 00s". Bernard Matthews. http://www.bernardmatthews.com/CompanyHistory00.asp.
- ^ a b "Inquiry call after turkey cruelty". BBC News. 2006-09-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/5324320.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ^ "Norfolk turkey boss Bernard Matthews, 80, retires". BBC News. 24 January 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8477437.stm. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ Mark Sweney (16 April 2010). "Bernard Matthews brings back 'bootiful'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/16/advertising-bernard-matthews-bootiful. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- ^ "Turkey Twizzler sales biting back". BBC News Online. 2005-03-23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4375399.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ^ "Turkey firm advert condemns abuse". BBC.co.uk. BBC News. 2006-09-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/5349336.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ^ "Inquiry call after turkey cruelty". BBC.co.uk. BBC News. 2006-09-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/5324320.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ^ "Bernard Matthews staff played 'baseball' with live turkeys". hillside.org. http://www.hillside.org.uk/BernardMatthewsWorkersCharged.htm.
- ^ "Workers charged". hillside.org. http://www.hillside.org.uk/BernardMatthewsWorkersCharged.htm.
- ^ "Bernard Matthews faces prosecution for failures at bird flu plant", Philippe Naughton, Times Online, 16 February 2007
- ^ "Tests confirm bird flu link to Hungary", John Vidal, The Guardian, 14 February 2007
- ^ "Bernard Matthews loses sales", Daily Telegraph, 14 February 2007
