Mr. Derek Kelly MBE
1930 – Present
Derek Kelly was born in 1930 in Durham, fell in love with farming at a very early age, spending weekends and holidays on the local farm. His parents, both school teachers, insisted that, on leaving school, he attend the local school of agriculture, where he met Mollie who became his wife and business partner until she passed away in 2010.
Derek won a scholarship to Durham University, taking a general agriculture degree, with a post-graduate year studying animal genetics. When his request to research cattle was turned down, he turned to chickens – more progeny and a shorter generation interval – which proved to be a career changer.
After eight years as a working farm manager with cattle, he accepted a job with Arbor Acres who planned to introduce their superior meat chicken into Europe, to coincide with the beginnings of the chicken industry in the 1960s.
This was the start of a period when Derek was either managing director or general manager of three international poultry breeding companies – Arbor Acres UK, Bernard Matthews Turkeys, and River Rest UK. He travelled the world.
Having had enough of the corporate world, he decided to start his own company. Wary of competing with the bigger commodity businesses, the niche market of fresh Christmas turkeys was chosen, and in 1971 KellyBronze Turkeys was formed.
At this time, only Ireland and Denmark had many turkey farms. Consultants were in demand and Derek could spend half of his time more profitably, helping the many turkey integrations that were springing up throughout Europe.
Derek also became very active in industry politics, including being a British Poultry Council member, a poultry delegate on the NFU Council, president of the Anglian Turkey Association and patron of the Turkey Club UK.
He also picked up numerous awards, including the prestigious Rupert Chalmers Watson Trophy from the British Turkey Federation for his outstanding leadership in the turkey sector, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Egg and Poultry Industry Conference (EPIC) in 2016.
He had previously been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1998 for services to the traditional poultry industry.
While Derek handed over the reins of the KellyBronze Turkeys business to his son Paul, in 2008, he remained as non-executive chairman and continued full-time on the farm, with a particular interest in the Aberdeen Angus breeding project.
He also became an associate director of Norwich Football Club, a liveryman in both the Worshipful Company of Farmers and the Poulters, and an active member of the EPIC organising committee.
Derek’s passion and tenacity has ensured that the voice and interests of small and large poultry farmers alike have always been heard – a role model to be admired and respected.