TECHNOLOGY firm Promethean has made redundancies in East Lancashire after a difficult year.

The interactive whiteboard manufacturer said ‘a handful’ of people had been laid off following a slump in education spending in key markets.

However, the company, of Lower Philips Road, Whitebirk, Blackburn, refused to reveal how many workers were made redundant.

A spokeswoman said it would allow the firm to ‘rationalise’ parts of its operations.

She said: “For example, we had separate European and Middle East marketing teams and we have merged them.

“However, we are still recruiting in other areas.”

Promethean has suffered in the past 12 months as governments in key markets, like the US and Europe, have reduced spending on education.

Turnover was still up 15 per cent to £235.3million last year.

But investors have been unimpressed by Promethean’s performance, with shares plummeting from a high of 213.5p in April 2010 to 61p last week.