‘Bootiful’ turkey tycoon Bernard Matthews dies

Bernard Matthews, the Norfolk turkey farmer who achieved celebrity status through his "bootiful" catchphrase, has died at the age of 80.

His death ends a remarkable business career that started just after the Second World War when he bought a dozen eggs and hatched them in a second-hand incubator bought in a local market.

He went on to build a multinational business that now farms seven  million turkeys a year.

Mr Matthews died on America's Thanksgiving Day, a celebration always associated with roast turkey.

At the peak of his fame in the Eighties and Nineties he was a familiar and much parodied figure on television as the face of his company in its ubiquitous advertising campaigns.

His Norfolk burr and distinctive pronunciation of "beautiful" propelled him to a level of fame matched by few other businessmen at the time.

As head of the British Turkey Federation, he presented Christmas turkeys at No 10 to Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, the Majors and the Blairs.

However, his reputation suffered in recent years after exposés about welfare standards at his factories, an outbreak of bird flu on one of his farms and the Jamie Oliver campaign to improve school dinners.

His company produced the highly processed Turkey Twizzlers that became the symbol of poor nutritional standards in school canteens.

But tributes were paid today by his closest colleagues. Noel Bartram, chief executive of Bernard Matthews Farms, said: "Rarely has any business been as synonymous with the hard work and values of one man.

"It was Bernard Matthews who grew and developed this company through his entrepreneurial spirit, and clear focus. He is the man who effectively put turkey on the plates of everyday working families and in so doing became one of the largest employers in rural East Anglia."

The success of his business, the biggest turkey producer in Europe, meant that he enjoyed a lifestyle most farmers could only dream of.

As well as his Norfolk mansion Great Witchingham Hall — bought for £3,000 in 1953 — he owned homes in London and the south of France and was a keen yachtsman.

Mr Matthews, who was still chairman of the company's supervisory board, died in his sleep at his home.

He leaves his wife of 57 years Joyce, four children and six grandchildren.