UK turkey producer Bernand Matthews dies

Bernard Matthews, founder of the UK’s best-known turkey company, has died aged 80 after a long illness.

Matthews started out in 1950 with just 20 eggs and an incubator, but by the end of the decade had built it up to a 50,000-bird business, based on 320 acres of ex-Second World War airfields.

In the 1960s he launched his first brand – Norfolk Manor Farms turkey – before branching into processed meats and ready meals in the 1970s. His advertising slogan “Bootiful” was launched in 1981 and has endured to the present day.

Matthews retired as chairman of the company in January this year on his 80th birthday, by which time the business employed over 2500 people and had a turnover of £330m.