A north Norfolk shellfish firm has launched ambitious three to five-year growth plans with a raft of investment in its factory and the appointment of a new senior management team.

The Big Prawn Company, based in the village of Melton Constable, has recruited four senior managers from seafood giant Findus Group, including former Anchor Foods managing director Will Rash.

Their arrival at the firm, founded in 1995, comes shortly after it invested in new packing lines, doubling capacity at the factory, which employs about 40 staff.

Big Prawn specialises in prawns and crayfish, currently imported at a rate of about 1,400 tonnes per year from South East Asia and the North Atlantic, creating a turnover of about �12m.

These are processed into packs in brine, modified atmosphere packs, mayonnaise-based products and Breakers snack pots. They are sold into supermarkets – including Waitrose, Tesco and Aldi – as well as restaurants, food outlets, including Pret a Manger, wholesalers, cash and carry firms and fish merchants.

The company said Mr Rash's job would be to 'lead the company and take it the next stage to become a major supplier of high-quality, sustainable seafood'.

Following the integration of Anchor Seafoods into Young's and the Findus Group, Mr Rash said he was looking for a fresh challenge.

Mr Rash, who has 18 years in the industry and took over as managing director last week, said: 'We want to expand and grow the business, maintain innovation with new products and grow the brand.

'We are a branded business moving more into retail and there aren't that many shellfish brands. We are strong in wholesale and restaurants but we want to be stronger in retail, that is where a lot of excitement and opportunity is.

'And the UK population wants to eat more shellfish. There is huge growth potential in prawns.'

He said the snacking market place, including lunchbox trade, was growing hugely.

Chairman and founder Sean O'Hanlon said: 'Will has the experience and leadership abilities to position The Big Prawn Company as the leading provider of seafood to the UK market.

'We are very fortunate to have on board arguably the most experienced person in the UK on sourcing sustainable seafood and we feel that we are now well positioned to achieve the very sharp growth that we are planning in the next three to five years.'

The firm's three other new management team members are Craig Harrison, sales director, and Nick Townley, senior accounts manager, previously at the Findus Group, and Richard Kemp, who takes over as operations manager and was previously operations director at Yorkshire Game.