MORE Hyndburn workers are suffering New Year gloom after one of the borough's biggest employers axed 80 jobs.
Church-based Express Gifts - one of the UK's biggest mail order businesses - took the action after a slump in the home shopping market.
Last month, Great Harwood Food Products announced 111 job losses while Clayton-le-Moors-based Polar Glass said it would lay off 45 workers - its entire workforce.
Express Gifts employs a total of about 1,400 staff at its Henry Street base and at a Clayton-le-Moors Business Park call centre. It is the biggest firm belonging to its parent company Findel plc.
But financial figures for the last six months of last year showed Findel suffered a four per cent fall in profits, prompting the job cuts.
A lot of the firm's work is seasonal. Last November it took on 900 temporary staff to cope with the high pre-Christmas demand for mail order goods.
At other times of the year it packs products bought by customers of the Studio and Ace catalogues.
A spokesman said: "Over the last year, Express Gifts has seen, along with most businesses in the retail sector, a slowdown in growth.
"As a result, we are looking to reduce staffing numbers to adjust for this."
He said bosses would hold talks with staff in the next month to see if voluntary redundancies can be agreed.
The latest dismissals could be a big blow to the town's economy - a factor illustrated by Councillor Brendan Shiel who last week launched a campaign urging every Hyndburn resident to dig deep and spend £10 a week in the borough.
Councillor Shiel said: "It is very regrettable when anyone loses their jobs but in this case it is 80 families who are going to be put into a situation where they have problems.
"It is yet another factor that shows our local economy needs a boost."
