TELECOMS firm IMS Group has made 100 people redundant at its call centre in Steeton this week.

Only 91 members of staff remain at IMS Response after the job losses, but the company will continue to operate.

Workers had been told that administrators Andersen were trying to sell the call centre as a going concern before the redundancies were announced.

The job losses have been blamed on the withdrawal of a major customer.

Gary Wilson and Simon Allport, of Andersen, were appointed joint administrators for the group and its five trading subsidaries earlier this month.

A statement, released on behalf of Andersen this week, said: "The joint administrators are continuing to trade the call centre, which employs a further 91 people, and it is still being marketed as a going concern.

"The joint administrators are continuing their review of the business and their discussions with interested parties."

In addition to the job losses at Steeton, 46 workers at the IMS Group head office in Leeds have been made redundant.

The two other divisions - IMS Media and IMS Telecom - based in London and Leeds were sold last week.

IMS Media, which has a turnover of £15 million, was sold to the Pertemps Group, and IMS Telecom, a re-seller of fixed and mobile telephony, was sold to a management buyout team led by Helen Oates, the former divisional director of IMS Telecom.

IMS has revealed difficulties in funding due to delays in setting up a national network for its telecoms operation.

Only four months ago the IMS Group - which offered phone lines such as horoscopes and sport services - doubled its workforce.