M&S said to cut dozens of head office jobs

LONDON (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) is to cut dozens of head office jobs following its decision to scale back its store expansion and refurbishment programme, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

The company said it had started consultations with staff in its property and store design and development departments as a result of its decision to reduce its growth plans but gave no details.

The newspaper, citing people familiar with the situation, said three-quarters of the roles in the store design and development team would be cut and a large number of property positions would be axed.

The total number of jobs affected is not known, but it is thought to be in the significant double figures but below 100, the paper said.

A company spokeswoman told Reuters: "We're consulting with our store design and development and property teams on proposed redundancies, we review our team structures all the time.

"This specific consultation is linked to a scale back of our capital expenditure programme as announced in our Q2 trading statement," she said.

(Reporting by Ben Deighton, editing by Tim Pearce)