CROMER Crab Company has been forced to shed 19 jobs because of a shift in shoppers' buying patterns.With wider economic woes reducing sales of premium fish products, the Cromer Crab Company has cut a large part of its midday shift of workers.

CROMER Crab Company this week blamed a change in shoppers' buying habits as it announced the loss of 19 jobs - some of them compulsory.

The company says it has cut a large part of its midday shift of workers.

Managing director Mike Grey said the present recession was compounding pressure on pricing in what was already a highly competitive industry.

He added that consumers were seeking fewer premium products.

"This is the case across our product categories: warm-water prawns and dressed crabs," he said.

"As a result, we have had to review our cost base. Regrettably, this means that we have consulted on disbanding the majority of our back shift, making 19 redundancies of which 11 were voluntary."

Mr Grey said most of the people affected had now left.

Before the redundancies the company had employed 248

staff.

Cromer Crab Company supplies dressed crabs and other products to companies nationwide from its Holt Road factory.

Now part of the Seafood Company, which focuses on chilled seafood for own label,

the organisation is part of a business that has other arms

at Grimsby, Inverness, Fraserburgh, in Scotland, and Hull.

The company started off in

1980 as a venture between a fisherman and restaurateur and since then has become one of north Norfolk's largest private employers.