Job cuts pending at Entertainment Rights

Postman Pat SDS

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Entertainment Rights, the company that owns Postman Pat, Rupert the Bear and The Lone Ranger has confirmed it will make redundancies in a bid to cut £5m in costs.

It is believed more than 20 staff members will be affected by the proposals and a consultation with staff has already begun.

The redundancies follow last months interim results where the company announced a loss of £105million for the eight months to 31 August.

At the time, chief executive Nick Phillips said key brands may have to be sold to keep the business afloat and that job losses were "inevitable".

Today, a company spokeswoman said the company was committed to making annual savings of £5m, including through the reduction of overheads.

"This would therefore result in a restructuring of the organisation and the regrettable and inevitable necessity to make redundancies. We have recently begun consultations with employees concerning this," she said.

"It is not a situation which the company takes lightly and ER is doing everything it can to minimise redundancies wherever possible."

The spokeswoman refused to confirm the exact number of jobs at risk.