The financial crisis that’s has so wracked the US book business is slowly but surely beginning to wallop the European industry: Penguin UK, the UK’s biggest publisher and the second biggest publisher in the world (after Random House) has announced it’s making 100 people “redundant” (the British euphemism for the American euphemism of being “laid off”) — i.e., it’s getting rid of 10% of its staff.

As Philip Jones details in a Bookseller report, the cutbacks are the most extensive yet in the British version of the crisis, and include at least one of the company’s leading executives: Penguin UK managing director Helen Fraser, the company announced, is taking an early retirement.

Meanwhile, Jones reports Penguin will reorganize into three adult divisions — Michael Joseph; Penguin General; and Penguin Press — and a new children’s division comprised of Puffin, Frederick Warne, Ladybird and BBC Children.

Penguin Group CEO John Makinson meanwhile said the company was “in extremely good health” and was “performing fine” and that the layoffs were not due to the financial crisis. “This is not an announcement about today’s Penguin, 2009,” he said, “this is about preparing for the future that is full of enormous opportunities, but unless handled right, with the right skills, right people, and with the right attitudes, could be a threat to us.”