Leicestershire country casuals brand Joules is planning redundancies at its head office under plans to merge more of its operations with new joint owner Next. Next, which helped buy Joules out of administration last December, said the cuts would be made later this year, but has not specified how many jobs will go.

It said it would be inviting people affected by the changes at Joules' HQ, in Market Harborough, to apply for similar posts at the Next head office, which is 20 miles away, in Enderby, just outside Leicester.

A Joules spokeswoman said the company would not be disclosing numbers. But she said "an accelerated and extended transition of many of Joules’ internal services to Next" had been announced, which meant that "many of the Joules support functions will transition to Next at the end of October 2023".

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"Whilst we are unfortunately making some redundancies, we have a very strong partnership with our friends at Next, not far away in Enderby, and we’ll be exploring job opportunities there for our impacted colleagues," she added. "We hope to mitigate as many redundancies as possible in this way.”

Next owns 74 per cent of Joules, with the remaining 26 per cent owned by Tom Joule. The Leicestershire clothing and homewares giant teamed up with Mr Joule – who launched Joules in 1989 – to buy the retailer out of administration for £34 million last December. The deal was reported at the time to have secured around 100 stores and protected almost 1,500 jobs.

Next also acquired Joules’ Harborough head office – which opened in 2021 following a £20 million investment – for £7 million cash.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange, Next said it was speeding up its plans to integrate more of Joules onto its Total Platform, which already provides it with things such as its website, warehousing, distribution, contact centre services, online advertising and retail services. The integration of things such as budgeting, contract management, imports and freight planning, as well as finance, payments, accounting and HR is being brought forward from next March to this October.

Joules will still be a separate company, with its own board and management led by Mr Joule, “entirely focused on product, marketing and brand development”, including design, buying, garment-technology, branding, social media and PR and website content.

Next said Total Platform integration meant "a number of tasks performed by Joules personnel will be absorbed into Next teams or no longer be needed". It added: “Joules is in the process of consulting with colleagues to let them know how they will be affected. Where roles are no longer required, Next will be working with those affected to ensure that they are considered for any suitable vacancies at Next."

Joules went into administration last November following months of financial difficulties and after failing to find fresh backers.

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