AN East Lancashire computer firm has quelled rumours 50 jobs will be cut when it restructures its sales staff.

Micro Peripherals, one of the UK's largest distributors of IT and technology products, employs around 250 at its Altham Business Park base and 150 more in offices in Basingstoke and Romsey, in Hampshire.

The company, which moved to Altham from Clayton-le-Moors in 1997, plans to restructure the sales area - to "better serve the business" - by January 18, 2005.

A letter from managing director Anthony Catterson to staff, obtained by the Evening Telegraph, said: "At the sales conference in November, I told you that we were about to experience some significant change in the business and I specifically mentioned a number of areas of the business including sales."

The letter goes on: "It is envisaged the new structure will require less people in order to fit our new business model and allow us to target our customers more appropriately.

"This letter serves to inform you formally that we will be making changes to the structure and that we have now started a process of consultation with you to take you through these changes."

Mr Catterson said the plan was vital to take the firm forward and any job cuts would only be decided after consultations - but he said he was "puzzled" by rumours there would be up to 50 redundancies as nothing had been decided.

He said: "We have said to people we may need less people to fill the new structure but we have no idea of the scale of that change as it will be determined by the restructuring process, which will not be complete until mid-January.

"As a business we are repositioning our sales for the next three, five, ten years and that means we need to upgrade the quality of our team so the service we give can be improved.

"We are being open with staff about this. We are looking to finalise the process around January 18 and that is when we will know exactly what is happening."

Despite the restructuring, Micro said it would continue to recruit throughout next year and that its planned key accounts team would open up a new job area.