BOOK shop chain Ottakar's announced a management shake-up yesterday to tackle growing competition and slowing sales.

Ottakar's, which has more than 120 outlets in the UK, acknowledged the company must adapt to meet changing market conditions when it confirmed the departures of head of marketing Paul Henderson and two other directors.

It comes after Ottakar's, which has branches in Darlington, Northallerton, Harrogate and Sunderland, failed to meet its own expectations for the Christmas trading period with full-year sales expected to fall short by £2.5m.

Ottakar's said it was scaling back the development of new products after mixed results and that this had led to departmental head Graham Edmonds resigning.

IT chief Richard Wakeham has also resigned, but will remain with the group until a successor is appointed.

Managing director James Heneage said a new post of commercial director would be created to oversee the supply chain and the terms of agreements with publishers.

But he denied the reorganisation of the marketing department was a cost-saving exercise or that it was linked to the slowdown in sales over Christmas.

He said: "This is something that has been long-planned and is a sensible restructuring to make the company better focused to changing market conditions."