Accounts reveal further losses at Bernard Matthews

Operating loss before exceptional costs at Bernard Matthews have doubled to £860,000, when compared with the previous period, latest accounts have revealed.

Results posted to Companies House for the 12-months to 28 June 2015 also show turnover at the firm down some £30m, from £306.8m in 2014 to £276.7m the following year.

Turnover in the 2012-2013 period was higher still, at £346m.

See also: Bernard Matthews’ boss Rob Burnett in the hot seat

Bernard Matthews is battling a suppressed market, where consumers have turned away from turkeymeat, and the brand image has suffered in recent years.

As part of a turnaround plan, private equity firm Rutland Partners injected £23.5m in 2013, and the business embarked upon a series of initiatives to cut costs and boost profits.

The company listed developing longer-term relationships with retailers, improving farming practice and planning for Christmas as three areas in which improvements had been made.

They add that a “strategic plan” was in place for the business that established “three key pillars” as focus areas for growth.

These include using land to generate energy, either to offset costs or generate revenue in its own right; a “core regeneration” through improving Christmas sales, increasing penetration of retailers’ own-branded turkey products and developing its own range of products.

A third “key pillar” is described as using the business’s expertise to expand into different industry areas, “looking at poultry in a much wider sense”.

The accounts add that Bernard Matthews continues to benefit from the support of investors and lenders, “demonstrated by additional funding of £10m in August 2015”.