The firm has confirmed it plans to axe up to 130 jobs at its sites in Wakefield and Bradford, blaming poor sales and the need to make cost savings.

The move is the latest round of job cuts set to hit staff at Redcats' Horbury Road call centre and Kettlethorpe warehouse after hundreds of redundancies in 2008.

Redcats first announced 500 redundancies in January 2008, before 350 workers were laid off in the city with the closure of the firm's Empirestores home shopping business.

Another 130 jobs losses were then announced in December 2008 under a 'restructuring' of the firm's logistics and customer operations.

And bosses have heaped misery on staff just before Christmas for the second year running with the latest announcement, understood to have been made to workers last Monday.

A statement issued by the firm said: "The company has begun formal consultation with the recognised trade unions and the Executive Association on proposed redundancies, which it is envisaged will not exceed 130 positions across its operations in Bradford and Wakefield."

David Johnson, national officer for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said most of Redcats' Wakefield staff were members of the union.

He said yesterday: "The union is fully involved with the consultation process and has scheduled a number of meetings with Redcats, continuing next Tuesday and Friday, to look at the proposals and find the best way forward for our members at this difficult time."

The Redcats statement said the firm was committed to relocating its call centre to new offices on a 50-year lease in the Wakefield area.

Redcats is understood to have remained in discussions with the owners of Wakefield's Waterfront development with a view to moving there.