Manchester firm Linder Myers has announced it will move out of the city centre and reduce staff numbers.

The firm was acquired by high street consolidator Metamorph Law in May.

In a statement, Metamorph said it had found a ‘significant mismatch’ between the amount of work being generated and the capacity of the staff available to do the work.

It is not confirmed how many of the firm’s 200 staff will lose their jobs, but the redundancy process has started and will be completed ‘as quickly and sympathetically as possible’.

Following the comprehensive review of the business, the firm has decided to relocate frontline services in Manchester and Chester to new premises in Sale.

Simon Goldhill, chief executive of the Metamorph Group, said: ‘Metamorph Law is a business that focuses on providing services to private clients and their businesses and therefore needs to be close to where they live and work.

‘Having our lawyers based in city centres is not the right location. Our new offices provide a better environment for both clients and staff.’

Linder Myers was rescued by Assure Law two years ago, with Assure becoming a joint venture partner of Metamorph last year.

The firm is understood to employ 66 solicitors and has annual turnover of £12m.

In 2011 it was reported that Linder Myers had paid £8.1m for an eight-storey block in Manchester’s Spring Gardens (pictured) and made the site its headquarters.

Metamorph has outlined its ambitions to acquire up to 60 firms in the next five years and said it is expecting to complete at least one deal by the end of this year.

Created as a vehicle to ‘acquire, transform and aggregate’ existing firms, it focuses on firms involved in private client work including conveyancing, wills and probate and family law.

It was granted an alternative business structure licence in April 2016. Linder Myers was its first acquisition.