MORE than 50 jobs are understood to have been lost at wallpaper giant Imperial Home Decor -- less than eight months after 96 workers were axed at the Darwen company.

Latest losses would take the total number of redundancies at the plant to more than 250 since American investors bought the business in 1998.

Chief executive of Imperial Home Decor, Bob Watson, refused to discuss the issue of redundancies. We always communicate with our employees," he said. "There is going to be no announcement to the press."

He said the company was constantly striving to improve efficiency, but declined to say whether redundancy was part of that process.

It is thought that 55 jobs will be lost at Darwen, with further redundancies at the company's operations in Morecambe

The Imperial Home Decor Group was created in 1998 when Darwen's Borden Decorative Products merged with American giant Imperial Wallcovers in a £200 million-plus deal, backed by a US investment group. The merger created the world's largest wallcoverings group, with its international headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Darwen operation, whose history dates back to 1856, is based at Belgrave Mills and is best known locally as Crown Wallcoverings. Wallpaper brands such as Crown and Shand Kydd are produced, .

At the time of the American buy-out, more 800 people worked at Belgrave Mills. After the latest redundancies, it is estimated the number of employees will have fallen below 550.

Mr Watson said his agenda was to secure the future for its workforce.

He said: "I want to drive forward with a wonderful new set of products that are selling extremely well."

Workers said they had heard about the losses. One said: "We've been told to say nothing about it."