Staff at a Marks and Spencer store in Co Down were today among 1,230 workers across the UK informed that they were losing their jobs.

The 125-year-old company — which employs around 70,000 staff in around 520 UK stores — said it plans to close 27 branches with the loss of up to 780 jobs. Up to 450 more will go from its head office.

Of the stores to close, 25 are under-performing Simply Food outlets, and two are small main chain stores selling both food and clothes.

The Newtownards Simply Food store based in Ards Shopping Centre is the only branch in the province to be earmarked for closure at this time.

The announcement comes as the ailing High Street retailer unveiled its worst sales figures for almost a decade with UK like-for-like sales tumbling 7.1% in the 13 weeks to December 27 — its biggest sales collapse since July-September 1999 — despite heavy price-cutting in the run-up to Christmas.

M&S currently has 21 stores in Northern Ireland with around 2,700 employees.

An official announcement on how the drastic plans will affect M&S staff across the province was made today after staff are informed.

It is believed the announcement was delayed to give bosses time to contact staff not in work.

However, the news that only one store in Northern Ireland is to go comes as relief to thousands of staff at the remaining 20 branches.

One worker said: “It is just relief to find out we are staying open.

“After reading about it yesterday that so many jobs were to go we really didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The cost-saving drive also involves changes to M&S's final salary pension scheme — by capping employees' annual increases in pensionable pay — and altering early retirement benefits for those who joined the scheme before 1996.

M&S hopes to cut costs by up to £200m through the moves.

Executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose said: “We are aware that the proposed changes set out will be difficult for those members of staff impacted.

“However, given that we expect challenging economic conditions to continue for at least the next 12 months, we believe we are taking the right action to maintain the strength of our business.”

The cuts came as M&S said UK like-for-like food sales fell 5.2% over the period, while general merchandise — which includes clothing — was down 8.9%.

However Marks and Spencer also revealed that online sales were up 29% and international sales up 26.9%.