ELECTRONICS firm X-Fab is likely to make 65 workers redundant at its Roborough factory after it failed to receive enough orders for one of its high-tech products.

The firm's finance director Chris Bailey said: "It's regrettable but we had to do this."

Workers are expected to leave their jobs in August.

The semiconductor manufacturer, which employs 234 people at its Tamerton Road plant, said the job losses were not recession related but had been planned for two years.

That's when the firm decided to stop making its six-inch silicon wafers, used in electronics, deciding to concentrate on an eight-inch model instead because of 'difficulties' maintaining both lines.

But orders for the larger model have "not increased sufficiently to require all the staff on site to be retained".

All orders for the six-inch wafers, used in medical and automotive technology, will be filled by the end of August.

Mr Bailey said the expected job losses would fall across the business, including engineers and clerical staff.

But the firm said the numbers and timescale for the redundancies may change if orders for either the six-inch or eight-inch wafers are received before late August.

The X-Fab job losses add to a growing list of redundancies in Plymouth, many in the manufacturing sector.

Last month, Princess Yachts made 317 workers jobless, while electronics giant Toshiba is to axe 270 jobs at its Ernesettle factory by the end of next month.

Earlier this month, bosses at Kawasaki Precision Machinery (KPM UK), also in Ernesettle, said 50 jobs are at risk among its 273 staff, after the recession slashed turnover by more than a third.

And, this month too, Estover-based ball-bearing maker the Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd revealed it had started a consultation period likely to result in the loss of up to 35 jobs.

Job losses are not restricted to manufacturing, however, with the Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society today confirming that 90 jobs are at risk in its head office, in Derrys department store, following a merger with the huge Co-operative group.

Plymouth's X-Fab plant is one of five, the others are in USA, Malaysia and two in Germany.

Based at the former Mitel and Plessey site, it bought the premises in 2003 from Zarlink Semiconductor, a Canadian-owned business which now leases a unit from X-Fab and at the time was its main client.

Much of X-Fab's work comes from the car industry but it also supplies components for hearing aids and pacemakers. Sales are worldwide, with most coming from Europe and USA.