Leading company to take over Cherryridge Poultry in England

Bernhard Matthews, a leading company in the turkey business, has announced plans to move into organic farming by taking over a part of a struggling poultry business. Cherryridge Poultry will close its processing factory near Northrepps at Christmas, which means a loss of 75 jobs. Cherryridge Poultry’s operations director stated that the collapse of poultry prices was following the avian flu alert. It had hit the business hard. In a typical week, 15,000 birds were processed through its abattoir and butchery. So far, Cherryridge is the major supplier of organic turkeys to Tesco.

Bernhard Matthews is in talks to help the company to continue the business on six farms, which would save the jobs of up to 20 workers. The turkeys on the farm with organic certification would be processed in plants run by Bernhard Matthews. It would make the company the UK’s largest producer of free range and organic turkeys. The commercial director stated that there had always been an intention to move into the organic and free range market. He saw it as a great opportunity to bring organic and free range turkeys to the general public by making them affordable and available. The overall sales were still small, but the market was rapidly growing.

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