Staff at the Haldanes store in Macleay Lane could be offered voluntary redundancy over the next two weeks as the chairman of the group revealed it is losing business to the supermarket giant.

Arthur Harris confirmed there is a consultation process ongoing with staff and unions about redundancies across the chain.

"Haldanes has made a considerable investment in Wick. However, Wick town centre, like so many others the length and breadth of the UK, has suffered from local councils granting major planning consents for large edge-of-town shopping facilities," he said.

"Like many businesses, we have to control our cost base to reflect change in customer spending patterns and cannot at this stage rule out the possibility of redundancies, but no firm decision has been made in the consultation process." The Haldanes store, which opened at the start of March, currently employs 26 staff in a variety of full-time and part-time positions.

It is understood that staff at the local branch have been told about the possible job losses, which are to be considered over the next two weeks.

Mr Harris would not name a figure for the total number of posts the company expected to go, but said that all applications from staff looking for voluntary redundancy would be considered and they would be notified of the outcome.

The chairman highlighted that the group was just starting out and, despite the possible job losses, he hoped that it would soon be in a better situation and that it was a case of putting the business first.

"Nobody expected the drop in returns that has happened. However, we anticipate that there will be an upturn but when that will happen we don't know. When it does, we expect that we will be hiring again," he said.

"We know the business will come back and hope this is just a temporary downturn, but we must make the business successful." Mr Harris said that edge-of-town developments, like Tesco in Wick, can have a severe impact on a close-knit retail sector.

"Although these developments initially offer many part-time and full-time jobs these come at a price to the local high street in the medium term. However, Haldanes is committed to ensuring that our store in Wick plays its part in offering local customers choice and competitive prices.

"We also have plans to invest more capital in the store to improve the standards of service we offer to our customers." A spokesperson for Tesco yesterday responded to Mr Harris's comments.

"Our store in Wick was granted approval by the local authority and has traded successfully since November 2006.

"The current economic climate impacts different businesses in many different ways."

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