Business Case Study

Case Study

In

Human Behavior

Name: Bagasala, Philip John M.

Section Code: CBET 02-402A

Professor : Chona Halili

Communicating with stakeholders

A Bernard Matthews case study

I. Story

Bernard Matthews is the largest turkey producer in the UK. The business has grown substantially since its relatively humble origins in 1950, when Bernard Matthews bought 20 turkey eggs and a secondhand incubator. 12 turkeys successfully hatched from this initial batch and before long, the young entrepreneur was able to give up his insurance job and concentrate full-time on rearing turkeys.

Today, Bernard Matthews rears over seven million turkeys every year. 13 million UK households buy a Bernard Matthews Farms branded product each year. Despite the size of its operations, the company remains close to its roots in East Anglia with its farms located across Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire. Bernard Matthews’ vision is ‘to make turkey the preferred choice of protein for every day and every occasion’.

Bernard Matthews operates in a competitive and fast-changing environment. Consumers are faced with a huge choice of foods to suit different lifestyles, diets and tastes. However, in recent years, buying patterns have changed as consumers have become more concerned about healthy eating, food safety and animal welfare.

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II. -------------------------------------------------

Issue

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Fast-changing environment

Chance events can have a significant impact on a food business. For example, Jamie Oliver’s high-profile campaign in 2005 to improve the quality of school meals singled out foods such as Bernard Matthews’ Turkey Twizzlers as being unhealthy. In 2007, there was an outbreak of bird flu at a Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk. At this time, the media also discovered that the company imported some of its turkey from...