Carlsberg sees its future as lying in East Asian markets

Overall, 70 jobs will be lost in Leeds, Northampton, and in distribution centres - in finance, personnel, sales, administration and purchasing roles.

The restructuring will cost 90m Danish kroner (12m euros; �8.24m) as it seeks to simplify its business processes.

Chief executive Lars Fellman said it was a "difficult" but necessary step to help deliver strong UK results.

"The trading climate in the pubs and restaurants sector in particular is very challenging and we, like other brewers, are having to reduce the numbers of people in our organisation," he said.

Fuel costs

In August, Carlsberg said it would need to cut costs by at least 500m kroner a year if it wanted to increase profitability.

The company said it had to take the latest move in light of increased inflationary pressures within the business, in particular increased fuel, utility and manpower costs.

Carlsberg also said it had sold premises in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen, making 250m kroner.

And it raised its guidance for 2005 net profit to 1.1bn kroner from the previous forecast of 1.0bn.

The firm has previously said that western Europe is a mature, declining, market and that it wanted to concentrate on Asia, where consumption was growing.

At present, 60% of its profits are in western Europe, 30% in eastern Europe and 10% in Asia, and the firm hopes to boost its sales in the latter two markets over the coming years.