Punch Taverns could axe more than 100 jobs as a result of its takeover of rival Pubmaster last year.
A move to consolidate administrative activities at Punch's head office in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, puts at risk 131 jobs from Pubmaster's former headquarters in Hartlepool and four satellite offices in Bromsgrove, Ipswich, Sheffield and Warrington.
The company said it would try to relocate staff where possible or honour Pubmaster redundancy terms. A 90-day consultation period with staff was launched last week.
Punch Taverns chief executive Giles Thorley said: "We expect full integration will take about six months to complete... 2003 was an excellent year for Punch. We begin 2004 with confidence and optimism."
As part of the ongoing reorganisation Punch has sold 27 pubs since the start of the financial year, acquired 38 and invested £16.1m on 213 development schemes.
The group plans to sell off a further 252 pubs for £57m to avoid overlap across its 7,386-strong merged estate.
The company, which saw like-for-like sales growth of 2% in the 16 weeks to 13 December 2003, has promoted Adrian Fawcett to the board. He has been with the company as chief operating officer since August last year and has been leading the integration of the two brands.
The company's £1.19b purchase of Pubmaster's 3,000-plus estate in November transformed it into the pub industry's largest player.