70 workers face axe at Tech giant Seagate's base in Londonderry

The US company, which makes hard drives and develops other top-of-the-range products, said it is being forced to cut the workforce at its Springtown facility on the outskirts of Derry city.

“It is not easy to make decisions that affect people’s lives in this way, but we believe this is the best way forward for the company right now,” the firm said in a statement.

The redundancies will be both voluntary and compulsory, the company said, and will reduce the 1,400 strong workforce by about 5%.

The firm said: “As indicated in recent public statements related to our latest earnings announcement, Seagate is undertaking a number of actions to better position the company for success and growth and to respond to new demand levels within the industry.

“These new levels are a result of a very dynamic and disrupted storage industry, driven by accelerating usage shifts of technologies and architectures by end users, and underpinned by a weak macro-economic environment.

“Unfortunately the required actions include some reduction in the company’s workforce.”

Since opening in 1993, Seagate has been one of the biggest employers in Derry.

The company announced a £34.7 million investment in R&D in 2014 with the focus on cutting-edge, heat-assisted magnetic recording technology.