Bernard Matthews turkey manufacturing unit is to shut at value of 600 jobs
Bernard Matthews’ turkey manufacturing unit is ready to shut down leaving 600 jobs at stake after the agency did not discover a purchaser for the ability.
The meals firm revealed in January that the ability in Great Witchingham, Norfolk, is ‘no longer commercially viable regardless of funding and efforts to safe extra enterprise’.
Last yr, the corporate reported losses of £10 million, following £25 million losses in 2022. The agency provides round seven million turkeys a yr.
The firm mentioned {that a} ‘giant majority of colleagues’ employed on the department will likely be supplied roles at their 5 poultry processing places in Norfolk and Suffolk.
It grew to become a family title when founder Bernard Matthews appeared on TV advertisements saying in a broad Norfolk accent that their turkey merchandise had been ‘bootiful’.
Bernard Matthews’ turkey manufacturing unit is ready to shut down, leaving 600 jobs at stake
The Great Witchingham was the primary manufacturing unit bought by Mr Matthews in 1955 and it grew to become the corporate’s HQ and residential to hatching, rearing and making ready turkeys
Bernard Matthews is understood for a lot of nostalgic meat merchandise, reminiscent of turkey Twizzlers
The Great Witchingham was the primary manufacturing unit bought by Mr Matthews in 1955 and it grew to become the corporate’s HQ and residential to hatching, rearing and making ready turkeys.
An organization spokesman mentioned: ‘Following a interval of in depth consultations with colleagues, regrettably we are able to verify that the proposal to shut our website at Great Witchingham will now proceed.
‘We perceive this will likely be very disappointing information for all involved and a very troublesome time for colleagues, who we commend for performing in such a skilled and courteous method throughout this unsettling interval.
‘We are happy to verify that the big majority of colleagues will likely be supplied roles at our 5 poultry processing places in Norfolk and Suffolk.
‘Remaining colleagues will likely be totally supported and all choices explored earlier than any ultimate selections are made.
‘Whilst we recognise that it’s troublesome to fulfill each worker in these troublesome circumstances, we stay dedicated to doing all we are able to and will likely be providing further assist till operations wind down within the coming weeks.’
A date for when the Great Witchingham will shut is because of be introduced on the finish of the month.
The firm additionally has vegetation in Attleborough and Thetford in Norfolk, and Holton, Flixton and Eye in Suffolk.
The lifetime of Bernard Matthews
Bernard Matthews was born in in Brooke, Norfolk in 1930 and was the son of a struggling mechanic.
He left college at 16 and, after transient stints within the RAF’s 617 ‘Dam Busters’ squadron and an area auctioneering firm, turned his hand to turkeys.
He was an 18-year-old trainee livestock auctioneer when he noticed 20 freshly laid turkey eggs on the market.
He purchased them for a shilling every in 1950, together with a second-hand incubator.
In the Nineteen Eighties, Bernard Matthews entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest turkey farmer in Europe
12 turkeys hatched which he bought to an area farmer for the equal of £9 immediately.
After two years’ National Service, he tried organising in his future mother-in-law’s again backyard.
But in 1955 he spent £3,000 shopping for the dilapidated Great Witchingham Hall in Norfolk, which has 36 acres of land. He crammed its 35 rooms with turkeys.
While he and his spouse lived in two rooms which weren’t heated, turkeys had been hatched in the eating room, reared within the Jacobean bedrooms and slaughtered within the kitchens.
In the Nineteen Eighties, Bernard Matthews entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest turkey farmer in Europe.
Over the years, he and his firm skilled criticism from animal welfare teams, nutritionists and movie star chef Jamie Oliver who condemned Matthews’s Turkey Twizzlers on his 2005 tv programme Jamie’s School Dinners.
When he died in 2010, aged 80, Mr Matthews had amassed a private fortune estimated at over £300million.
In 2016 one other entrepreneur Ranjit Singh Boparan bought the Bernard Matthews enterprise.
