MORE than 80 jobs are to go at a laundry factory in Swindon which has a contract with the town's hospitals.

Sunlight Laundry says it is not making enough money and that keeping the firm open would be uneconomic.

Managers have launched a consultation process with union officials but expect the factory in Whitehouse Road will shut on February 9.

A total of 84 workers will be made redundant.

For the last three years the laundry, which is part of the Sunlight Service Group, has provided clean linen for Swindon's Princess Margaret and Victoria hospitals. It also has contracts with hospitals in Reading and Bath.

Sunlight Service Group bought the factory a year ago from Midland Laundry Group.

The firm used to clean laundry for bigger hospitals such as Kings Cross and Great Ormond Street but has been forced to scale back its operations over the last six months.

The contract for hospitals in Swindon will be given to a different branch of the company, which is based in the Midlands.

Martin Roberts, head of human resources, said the company was doing what it could to find staff alternative jobs.

"It is very difficult to make a decision about a factory closure but it is for purely economic reasons. The laundry itself has become uneconomic for us to operate.

"That doesn't mean to say it is losing money but it is not making what it should," he said.

"We have a number of factories which have got the capacity to take over the Swindon work.

"We will do our utmost to get our staff alternative work and feel pretty confident most of them will. We can offer them alternative work within our own business but it won't be in Swindon."

One employee, who has been working at the laundry for the last 13 years and asked to remain anonymous, said morale was very low.

"This has really upset a lot of people, some of whom have been here a long time," she said. "The staff are very loyal and hardworking and it is a very bad time to be told of this."

The firm is the fourth in Swindon to announce it plans to shut up shop in the last three months.

In October, packaging company Finlay Beverages on the Groundwell Industrial Estate said it could no longer compete and would be re-locating next Easter with 60 job losses.

Next March up to 40 jobs will go at the Swindon branch of Stralfors, which copies software, when it closes its Dorcan factory.

And cake company R&K Wise, which has premises in Headlands Grove and on Groundwell Industrial Estate, is closing its factories next autumn with 540 job losses.