Kellys Begin Breeding White Turkeys

In 1971, as Derek and Mollie Kelly established our family turkey business in Essex, they began breeding white turkeys with a particular focus on flavour and eating quality. Derek believed that customers buying a turkey for Christmas would be prepared to pay more for a bird that delivered a better eating experience, and this principle shaped the breeding programme throughout the 1970s. The work combined our hatchery operation with the production of Christmas turkeys. Rather than concentrating solely on faster growth or lower production costs, Derek and Mollie selected their white strains for characteristics that mattered on the table. By 1979, Kelly white breeds were winning shows around the country for flavour, quality and meat texture. Those successes came as the traditional market was beginning to change. Improvements in processing enabled supermarkets to sell fresh turkeys in greater volumes and at lower prices, putting pressure on specialist breeders supplying independent butchers. That commercial challenge would eventually lead our family to reconsider its approach and begin developing bronze turkeys in the 1980s.