CLOSE to 100 jobs are at risk following the proposed closure of a specialised chemical factory in Bromborough.

The threat follows a “strategic review” of the financial performance of SAFC Hitech’s factory on Power Road.

It is understood that the closure would result in the loss of around 90 jobs.

Staff at SAFC Hitech – which forms part of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation – were called into a meeting with senior management on April 29, who told them a consultation over the closure of the site was to begin.

The Power Road site has faced numerous difficulties in recent years, culminating in a fine of £120,000 last year for health and safety breaches.

The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the company after one of its staff was engulfed by a fireball in 2012 when a batch of volatile chemicals burst into flames.

He was kept in an induced coma for seven weeks following the incident on February 28.

Sigma-Aldrich has sites all over the world and is recognised as a top 10 global speciality chemicals and biologics supplier, manufacturing for the life science and high technology industries.

A spokesman for the chemical giant told the Globe: “On 29th April 2014 SAFC Hitech senior management met with employees at the Company's site in Bromborough, Wirral, to announce that consultation will commence with regards to a proposal to close the site.

“This follows a strategic review of the Bromborough site's past, current and projected financial performance.

“The consultation period will be shaped by current legislative guidelines but will last as long as is reasonably necessary to ensure the process is meaningful and to give employees every opportunity to provide input.”