LONDON — Consultations have started about significant job losses and potential closure at Plus Semi (Swindon, England), which was originally the headquarters of Plessey Semiconductors.

According to the Swindon Advertiser the company is looking to lay off as many as 80 of the current 115 staff at the facility.

The move comes just two months after the operation was acquired in an MBO from MHS Electronics UK Ltd.

MHS had acquired the business in February 2008 and the company was subsequently placed into administration in February 2009.

"We are just going through the process and getting consultation with employees at the moment," Mike Le Goff, managing director of Plus Semi told the local newspaper.

"I would imagine that we will know more in mid-July. I am not very confident that we well be able to retain manufacturing in Swindon," LeGoff is reported to have said.

"We have tried very hard to make a success of the business in Swindon but the market conditions have been very poor."

Plus Semi is a trading division of JSFM Consulting. The company processes include bipolar and BiCMOS processes down to 0.8-micron, which offers as the basis of an analog and mixed-signal foundry service.

Semiconductor manufacture has been present at the Plus Semi site in Cheney Manor, Swindon since 1956.

The chips manufactured at the site are used in telecommunications, automotive, military, aerospace, medical, industrial and commercial applications. At one time the facility employed 2,000 people in Swindon, when part of the Plessey Group.