Some 300 jobs are to be axed in Scotland after US-based Sanmina-SCI told staff that it was closing its computer plant in Greenock.

The electronics firm is now entering a 90 day consultation period with workers before the plant - which manufactures servers among other things - is finally shut down.

A spokesman for the company confirmed to The Register that management and employees were told of the closure this morning.

Details of redundancy payments are due to be ironed out in the next week or so.

Inverclyde Council leader Alan Blair told El Reg that today's announcement was "obviously disappointing news for the area".

"We will be working with Scottish Enterprise and other partners during the consultation process and beyond to help those affected gain work or retraining," he said.

Sanmina took over the Greenock plant from IBM three years ago as part of an outsourcing deal with the computer giant.

At the time 650 IBM employees transferred to Sanmina but over the last three years staff numbers have dwindled. ®