EIGHTY jobs are being axed by a Church mail order company following a dip in home shopping.

The news comes just weeks after two other Hyndburn companies announced more than 160 job losses.

Express Gifts, Henry Street, employs over 1,400 people and a spokesman said the losses were due to a slowdown in growth in the home shopping market.

It is thought redundancies will be spread across the business and the majority will be salaried workers.

Half year figures to December last year show that Findel plc, the parent company of Express Gifts, suffered a four per cent loss in sales in the home shopping section of its business.

The spokesman said: "Over the last year Express Gifts has seen, along with most in the retail sector, a slowdown in growth and as a result is looking to reduce staffing numbers to adjust for this."

Consultations with staff representatives are to be held over the next month when options to lessen the blow will be discussed.

It is hoped the job losses can be minimised by voluntary redundancy, early retirement and part-time working.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "I am very disappointed, especially on the back of recent job losses in Hyndburn. I really feel for the people who work there and their families in this uncertain time.

"Express Gifts is a very large employer and hopefully many of the losses can be absorbed by voluntary redundancies."

One member of staff said: "The company has said that most of the jobs will go through voluntary redundancies but it is still a worry. We have only just lost all of the seasonal staff so it's a shock that any more jobs are going."

Over the festive period Express Gifts took on an extra 900 temporary staff to deal with the demand for their products in the run-up to Christmas.

Over 300 of those employed were from Poland and other Eastern European countries.

Express Gifts is the largest company within the Findel plc group and is one of the UK's leading mail order companies, selling a wide range of greeting cards, gifts, home and garden items through its Studio and Ace catalogues.

The firm also has a call centre at Clayton-le-Moors Business Park that deals with customers' orders and accounts.

More than three million catalogues are distributed each year by the company.

On January 11 Polar Glass, at Junction Seven Business Park, Clayton-le-Moors, announced it was closing with the loss of 45 jobs.

That news came just days after the meat producer Great Harwood Food Products, Balfour Street, shed 71 staff. A further 40 are set to go next month when the subsidiary of E Slinger and Sons, is wound up.