UP TO 90 people threatened with the sack from one of Macclesfield's biggest employers will learn their fate just two weeks before Christmas.

They face the agonising wait after the HFS Group - last year voted in a Sunday Times survey as the seventh best company to work for in the UK - announced that the roles of staff across its three Macclesfield sites, and an outbound call centre in Manchester, were under threat.

The loans company, which boasted of bringing relaxation to its workforce, insists that a review will be carried out over the next five weeks to determine who has the necessary skills to be transferred to another role within the organisation.

But with only 30 positions waiting to be filled, at least 60 former employees face the prospect of a bleak Christmas.

The announcement comes just one year after a £65m buy-out by Capital One Financial Services, and is a blow to the image of a company that once boasted of providing luxury holidays, cash, champagne and chauffeur driven nights out as staff bonuses.

Employees would start the day with a free breakfast, and take breaks for complimentary massages and manicures every week.

Such gimmicks resulted in an internal survey in 2004 showing that 96 per cent of employees were looking for a long term future there.

But one disgruntled employee currently on paid leave from the 24-hour helpline, who asked not be named, said this week: "They are constantly in the papers singing their own praises about how great a company they are, but a year after being bought they are making 90 people redundant."

But the company's managing director, Paul Naden, insisted that they were looking to redeploy people at the Macclesfield sites on Oxford Road, Brook Street and Springwood Court, along with the outbound centre in Didsbury.

He said: "I've been with the business since September 1999 and have grown up with the business, so it is obviously a difficult time for us to make these restructuring options.

"But we really believe this sets us up for growth by compensating on our core activities.

"None of these decisions have been taken lightly whatsoever and I'd be upset if anybody felt this was rushed into.

"We've got the support of Capital One and without their help we'd have had to make these decisions earlier rather than later.

"We have to be completely fair to the people that remain in the business."

Everybody working at the outbound call centre is now on paid leave, as are all members of the night shift on the 24-hour telephone helpline.

Communications manager, Mila Violaris, said: "We are reviewing market conditions and how we meet those best for our customers. We have made some decisions that mean there is a risk to a number of roles.

"We will follow a legal process over the coming weeks when it will go over a period of consultation and we will look at redeployment within HFS.

"They are at risk of redundancy, but we will be looking for other opportunities over the next five weeks."

The HFS Group currently employs 465 staff who complete £50m worth of loans a month.