Twenty jobs are to go in an international shake-up at book company Blackwell's.

Reorganisation of the Oxford firm's UK and USA library bookselling operations has resulted in the concentration of the work at its base in Portland, Oregon.

The change will affect 20 jobs out of a total workforce of 208 in Oxford.

David Taylor, director of Blackwell's Book Services UK, said the move was a "necessary response to the way in which the global library supply market is changing".

He told the Oxford Mail: "We know for example that our customers want a single point of contact for both placing their orders and dealing with our customer service staff.

"We will be able to provide them with that as a result of the integration."

Mr Taylor said although the number of people employed in Oxfordshire would be cut, the move was not a downsizing of the company.

He said: "It is a removal of things we do twice which has come about as a result of the way in which we ran the UK and US operations in the past.

"Integration is all about improving the way we run our business and, above all, improving the service to our customers worldwide."

News of the redundancies was first reported in the Oxford Mail in July, when staff were briefed about the changes.

Mr Taylor added: "A lot of detailed planning has been going on since then and we are now in a position to confirm to each individual what will be happening to their current job."

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