Once a prominent leader in turkey meat production in the United Kingdom, Bernard Matthews Foods has announced plans to close its best-known plant at Great Witchingham.
Bernard Matthews launched a turkey business with 20 hatching eggs and a second-hand incubator in 1950. Driven by its charismatic founder as a well-known public figure, the business grew to its peak in the 1990s, when the firm diversified into other meats and fish.
Last week, the company announced the likely closure of the cooked meat plant at its original site at Great Witchingham in Norfolk, reported Eastern Daily Press.
More than 600 jobs are at risk, although most of the current workforce will be offered employment at other Bernard Matthews’ sites. These include Attleborough and Thetford in Norfolk, as well as Eye, Flixton, and Holton in the neighboring county of Suffolk.
Following a review of its businesses, the company has identified investment and growth opportunities at these other sites in the region.
There now follows a standard procedure involving consultations with employees and their representatives, Unite the Union.
Despite investment in the Great Witchingham plant and efforts to secure more business, the facility is no longer viable, a spokesperson for the company said.
Ongoing business challenges for Bernard Matthews
In the year to January of 2022, Bernard Matthews Foods reported a pre-tax loss of more than GBP25 million (US$32 million). The loss was reduced to about GBP10.2 million for the following year in results recently posted.
Despite a 5.2% year-on-year increase in sales to almost GBP285 million, costs also rose — on sales as well as distribution and administration. As a result, operating loss was down from a shade under GBP25 million for the year ended January 2022 to GBP9.6 million for the following 12 months.
All of the firm’s reported sales were of poultry and related products. For the year to January 2023, more than 98% was generated in the U.K., and just over GBP4.2 million in the European Union.
Over recent years, the firm has been struggling to balance rising costs with weak demand as turkey meat products lost popularity. Furthermore, there has been an almost continuous threat to the business from avian influenza, and production facilities are approaching the end of their effective life.
In the two latest trading years covered by these reports, the workforce declined from more than 2,100 to around 1,840.
More on Bernard Matthews Foods
According to the company’s web site, Bernard Matthews was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in the 1960s as the largest turkey producer in Europe. Over the following 20 years, the business expanded with new products and ranges to appeal to the growing market for convenience foods and healthier options.
In 2010, founder Bernard Matthews resigned as chairman.
Six years later, the company was acquired by Ranjit Singh Boparan, and incorporated into Boparan Holdings. By turnover the largest food company in the U.K., the group also includes 2 Sisters Food Group.
With 525 million birds slaughtered annually, 2 Sisters is the second largest poultry company in Europe, according to WATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies survey.
