Openshaw is to close the order receipt facility for its Openshaw Gold online ordering service at its Redhill, Walsall and Bristol offices, resulting in 12 redundancies.


The facility will be centralised at its head office at Todmorden in Lancashire, where 16 staff will handle calls.


"We are taking well over 10% of business through the online ordering service, and it made sense to centralise our order callsite to operate from one facility," said group chief executive David Coltart.


"For the last nine months we have been taking in staff and training them, and invested some 350,000 in the e-commerce operation."


The online operation provides a bespoke buying list to customers based on purchases over the past six to 12 months.


Openshaw rolled out its Openshaw Gold online operation in the culmination of a four-month development programme last year, along with a 650,000 investment in IT and telecommunications.


Story by Andy Scott