Episode show notes
What is Christmas without Turkey? It’s the essential centrepiece of Christmas dinner, and there’s a world of care, commitment and craft that’s often taken for granted.
While the award-winning Copas Traditional Turkeys was established in 1957, the family has been in the area for around 350 years! Leading that lineage now as Director and Sales Manager are Tom & Verity Copas.
The couple share how much devotion goes into their craft, how they balance traditional methods with new ambitions, plus some tips from the pros on how to nail your Christmas dinners this year!
This episode covers:
- The Copas family’s various business ventures in Maidenhead for 350 years
- Maintaining the tricky barrier between work and home life as a couple
- All the resilience-building challenges to which Copas have become so adaptable
- Balancing traditional business approaches with the desire to drive forward in new directions
Episode highlights
“I kind of regret not going away. Even just seeing how the people manage and how people deal with the HR aspects of running a business – I would have grown a lot more by stepping away and doing that first.” – 7:20 – Tom Copas
“Some days we’re really good at keeping work separate from home life. But other days, it all amalgamates into one thing. You do sometimes have to sort of come back from it and be a bit strict with yourself.” – 11:15 – Verity Copas
“It’s been challenging year upon challenging year, which is generally exhausting. But we have probably become quite adaptable and robust to change as a result. It does feel at times that there’s only so much stretch, there’s only so much give, because we need to break through this at some point.” – 22:15 – Tom Copas
“Similarly to Tom, I’m about moving forward with the business, but at the same time, you do want to hold true to those family values that have established us and made us the name that we are. It can be really difficult, because obviously you’ve also got the expectation of the family. ” – 30:15 – Verity Copas
“We used to have a tradition of the Copas Christmas Weigh-In, a competition for who could put the most weight on over Christmas dinner!” – 46:30 – Tom Copas
“Don’t always take it personally, often people do have the best intentions. Take support as well, that’s probably another piece of magic – take support where you can get it because inevitably you will need it.” – 54:50 – Verity Copas