As many as 1,300 people found out today they will lose their jobs at a Japanese-owned electrical factory.

Panasonic, which employs 2,400 workers at its 25-year-old plant in Cardiff said uncertainty over Britain's adoption of the single currency was one of the reasons for the cutback.

Erosion of electrical goods prices was also to blame for the decision to halve the size of what was the firms' largest British plant, according to personnel manager David Fowler.

Of those losing their jobs, 700 were permanent workers and 600 were temporary staff.

All 1,800 permanent staff at the plant had been offered voluntary redundancy and 1,000 of them had applied.

Mr Fowler said the redundancy offer would remain open until Friday when the final 700 would be chosen from across all departments.

The redundancies would not come into force until Christmas, when temporary staff would also have reached the end of their contracts.

Mr Fowler said: "We are moving from being a volume producer to being a value producer."

In the new year the slimmed-down factory would continue to make televisions, microwave ovens, laptop computers, plasma TVs and projection televisions.

All other production would be moved to the Czech Republic where the company currently employs 800 to 1,000 people.

More jobs are expected to be created at the four-year-old Czech factory to cope with the extra work.