Staff at a struggling chain of bookshops have been told they are at risk of being made redundant.

Letters have been sent to the majority of the 600 workers at British Bookshop and Sussex Stationers, which has 39 outlets in Sussex and across the South East, saying their jobs could go once a review of the stores is completed by the end of this month.

Bosses fear the business could collapse unless some staff go.

This follows 30 redundancies last month at the firm's warehouse and head office in Hollingbury, Brighton, where just over 100 people were employed.

The loss-making chain was sold by Ireland-based Easons to private equity firm Endless earlier this year.

Chief executive John Simpson told The Argus the company had been forced to cut staffing levels to bring its costs under control.

He said there were no plans to close any of the 39 stores but could offer no guarantees they would all stay open.

Mr Simpson said: “The business is loss making but we think we have a good business here and we need to turn it around.

“Part of that is looking at our staffing levels and unfortunately we have had to make some redundancies.

“We hope to stabilise the business so we don't lose all 600 jobs in the stores as well. If we do not do something the whole lot will go bust.”

Mr Simpson refused to say how many jobs could go, saying he didn't want to “pre-judge” the outcome of the store reviews.

Endless also owns discount booksellers The Works, which has stores in some of the 22 areas where British Bookshops has sites in Sussex, which include Brighton, Crawley, Eastbourne and Horsham.

There were fears that the duplication could lead to a swathe of closures but Mr Simpson said the private equity firm was committed to the British Bookshops brand.

He said: “There is great support from Endless. They are very keen on the business as they would not have bought it otherwise.

“We have a great opportunity to make this work as it is a key part of Brighton and the South East and we want to see how we can develop the business in the coming months.”

Moves are already under way to rebrand the chain of stores as British Bookshops and Stationers.

Mr Simson said: “For stores in Kent, Surrey and Hampshire to have Sussex Stationers over the door seems completely meaningless.

“We want the name to say what it does on the tin. We are a national chain and the name needs to reflect that.”

British Bookshops was started when brothers Michael and Jonathan Chowen opened a bookshop in Haywards Heath in 1971.

Eason bought the company in 2005 in a deal then estimated to be worth £30 million.

The company sold the chain to Endless in May for an undisclosed sum shortly after the departure of former boss Michael Shakespeare.