Kelly Family Faces Turkey Market Downturn

In the early 1980s, our turkey business faced one of its most difficult periods. London wholesale markets were oversupplied and the Christmas turkey market suffered a severe downturn. Our company records describe the first three years of the decade as the worst on record for Christmas turkeys, putting the family business into crisis. The difficulties reflected wider changes in how British consumers bought their Christmas poultry. Supermarkets were becoming increasingly important, offering cheaper frozen birds and, as processing technology developed, fresh turkeys produced in volume from modern commercial breeds. Independent butchers-an important outlet for smaller traditional producers-were declining. Paul Kelly later recalled that 1983 was particularly difficult: the business had to make two of its six employees redundant, prompting him to remain on the farm rather than travel after completing his studies. As a small producer, we could not compete with large-scale supermarket production on price alone. The experience forced us to consider how the business could offer something different, helping prompt the decision to concentrate on traditional bronze turkeys that followed in the next stage of our history.