Hard drive manufacturer Seagate, which is aiming to cut 14% of its global staff by 2017, has announced that its Hampshire development centre is to close.

The closure, which Seagate has blamed on the downturn in hard drive sales in favour of solid state drives, will lead to the loss of 320 jobs.

A spokesman from Seagate said: "It’s not easy to make decisions that affect people’s lives in this way and we regret that approximately 324 employees will be affected by this action."

News of job losses in their Hampshire base follows the news from earlier this year that Seagate are cutting 70 jobs in their Londonderry plant. The company have promised workers in their Northern Ireland plant that they will not be affected by 14% cut target worldwide.

While Seagate does manufacture solid state drives (SSDs) as well as traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), their market share is lower.