Bernard Matthews Farms relaunches its cooked meat range

Bernard Matthews Farms has relaunched its entire cooked meats range, building on the provenance, quality and taste credentials of its Golden Norfolk Turkey, which has been the centrepiece of many Christmas dinners over the last 30 years.

“Golden Norfolk is our gold standard product and for us it represents simple Norfolk goodness,” says the firm’s marketing director, Matt Pullen. “We believe consumer awareness and recognition of the Golden Norfolk Turkey and its great taste will help restore quality perceptions across our cooked meats portfolio, and will be further enhanced by the launch of free-range products under the Golden Norfolk banner.”

A clear and simple structuring of the new cooked meats range into a “good”, “better” and “best” tiering will ensure that shoppers can make the right choice.

Eight new high quality British Golden Norfolk turkey breast products including slices, carvery cuts and thick cut fillets comprise the “better” offering, with familiar favourites like Bernard Matthews Farms Wafer Thin Turkey Ham and Wafer Thin Turkey in the “good” tier.

Top of the pyramid in “best” are three Golden Norfolk Free Range Turkey sliced breast meat products, which aim to broaden the appeal of Bernard Matthews.

Mr Pullen stressed that all turkey in the Bernard Matthews Farms cooked meats range is now 100% British reared on its own farms across Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire.

The company sees the relaunch as the next stage in the the company’s repositioning following the avian flu outbreak in early 2007.

“By introducing ‘Golden Norfolk’ turkey into cooked meats, focusing on our farming heritage and launching branded free-range cooked meats, I believe we can do a great deal to restore quality perceptions, consumer trust and drive new interest in this £1.2bn category.”

The new cooked meats range will benefit from the £3m investment in the Bernard Matthews Farms brand this autumn under the banner “Proud to work at Bernard Matthews Farms”.