The future of a number of administrative staff at the Irish operations of Marks and Spencer is in doubt after the UK retailer announced it was cutting 500 head office and back office jobs over the next two years.

The company said the position of administrative workers across the entire organisation would be scrutinised in a £25 million (€37.7 million) cost-cutting drive.

But a spokeswoman was unable to say how many Irish staff would be affected.

Marks and Spencer said 500 jobs would be lost over the next 12 months, with another 500 likely to follow later. But the company said the 58,000 people it employs in its stores across Ireland and Britain would not be affected.

"This is an integral part of our plan to kick-start the next stage in the transformation of the business," said Mr Roger Holmes, M&S chief executive

The number of job cuts will be decided as part of a review beginning in May, but the final figure "could be higher" than 1,000, the spokeswoman added.

M&S has been losing UK market share to rivals such as Next recently. The chain has six stores in the Republic.