Bookseller Blackwell's has axed five top head office jobs in a restructuring exercise.

Those made redundant include bookselling veteran John Thwaites, who was made retail director only a year ago.

He previously managed Blackwell's flagship shop in Broad Street, Oxford, and Waterstone's in Gower Street, London.

Michael Neil, who has been promoted from marketing director to sales and marketing director, said he could not identify the other four managers, as a consultation period was still running.

"We are consulting them to see if there are any other positions in the company they could move to."

The company, based in Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, has merged its sales, operations and marketing departments.

Mr Neil said: "Blackwell's is a complicated business model. What we have been doing until now is a 'one size fits all' system, which doesn't work as well as it could.

"We have four types of shop: flagships like our shop in Broad Street, with a mix of customers; academic shops like the one at Manchester University; student shops like the one at Oxford Brookes; and specialist stores such as the art and poster shop in Broad Street.

"We are going to manage each of these formats in a slightly different way and market to those customers in a slightly different way, so we have restructured along those lines."

Two years ago, almost 100 jobs went from the 250-strong workforce at Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, in an earlier restructuring.