E-retailer Jungle.com saw a batch of redundancies last week, but says the action does not affect flotation plans.

According to Jungle CEO Steve Bennett, the "handful" of employees – around 20 people – were binned when Jungle officially merged with its sister IT mail order business Software Warehouse.

The two companies, both majority owned by Bennett, were relocated to one building in Birmingham, resulting in "duplication" in the marketing and customer service departments.

An IPO, which sources says originally scheduled for this month (but never officially announced), has now been pencilled for a later date.

"Anybody would be foolish to float now," said Bennett, but claimed that flotation by the end of the year would be "very likely".

Bennett said a later IPO would not cause a cash crunch. "Cashflow's not an issue," he said. "Jungle is in a very strong position – it is financially being supported by 3i and Barclay's Bank until its flotation."

The company said it was on target for sales in excess of 100 million this year. ®