Debenhams, which warned on profit in January after a poor Christmas, said the job losses formed part of a programme to reduce costs by about 10 million pounds this year.

The retailer said it aimed to redeploy staff where possible.

"The review looks to identify how we can reduce cost and complexity in store processes so that we can focus our resources on serving customers better," Debenhams said.

Shares in the firm, down 47 percent over the last year, were down 0.3 percent at 0834 GMT.

Over the last two weeks UK supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons have all announced plans to strip out layers of management with the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton and Jason Neely)