More than 100 Warburtons staff face the axe after the bread maker said its Newport bakery could close – just four years after it opened.

A 90-day consultation began this week after Warburtons said “operational reasons” could force the closure of the Rogerstone site.

David Williams, general manager of bakeries in Newport and Bristol, said the company’s growth forecasts had been too ambitious.

“It is purely in line with demand,” Williams told BBC Radio Wales. “The total bread market and in the southwest is not growing in line with our original estimates and forecasts.”

Warburtons opened its Newport site in 2006 and the Bristol site two years later.

Williams said: “The bakery in Bristol opened nearly two years ago and at that time our forecasts showed there was more than enough demand for both sites, and for both sites to run flat out.”

Welsh supplier Brace’s Bakery has reportedly expressed an interest in taking over the facility and safeguarding the workers’ jobs.

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