HUNDREDS of British jobs may be at risk under a global restructuring plan unveiled yesterday by Sanyo, the struggling Japanese electronics maker.

As many as 350 jobs may be cut at Sanyo’s television factory in Suffolk as part of the group’s sweeping efforts to drag its finances out of the red.

Tomoyo Nonaka, the company’s new chief executive, just one week into the job, said that Sanyo would cut 8,000 jobs in Japan and a further 6,000 around the world. Sanyo’s main business in the UK, which employs about 400 people and makes traditional cathode-ray tube televisions, has looked vulnerable as Japanese electronics manufacturers shift their output to flat-screen sets. Sony said last week that it would cut 650 jobs at its TV plant in South Wales.

A Sanyo spokesman said that details of its restructuring programme had not been formally decided, and management was looking at all operations with a view to reducing staff. He added that television manufacturing was on a list of “at risk” businesses.

The three-year plan, known as Sanyo Genesis III, will see 20 per cent of the group’s Japanese factories closed down to give a sharper focus on high-margin, eco-friendly products such as solar panels. The plan aims to shave about £400 million in costs by March 2008.

Sanyo’s troubles have arisen from intense competition in the digital camera market. The company also suffered from the Niigata earthquakes last year, which badly damaged its facilities.

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