The Financial Week Ahead - Allied profits slide.
In the spotlight: Bowling alley group chief executive expected to
Euro 2000 proved as much a disappointment for management accountant and Allied Leisure chief executive Neil Goulden as it was for England’s army of over optimistic and enthusiastic fans.
The bowling alley and burger joint group this July issued a trading statement revealing a like-for-like sales slump of 20% during championship June across its ten-pin bowling business.
Goulden also warned a 3.2% decline in customer trade at Megabowl and Super Bowl outlets over the year was likely to have a ‘material impact’ on annual results, due tomorrow.
Forty-seven year old Goulden and fellow boardroom accountants FD Martin Scott, group services director John Casey and chairman Kenneth Scobie will tomorrow reveal annual results. Analysts have predicted pre-tax profits down #1.5m to about £8.5m.
Shares crashed from 123p to 107.5p after the July announcement, and last week stood at an annual low of 92p.
Last year the group doubled its size with the acquisition of rival European Leisure and paid £22.7m in May for Waterfall Holdings, the pool and snooker hall operator.
The leisure group now operates 170 American pool and snooker clubs under the Rileys brand in the UK, and 35 Burger King franchises in the North and Midlands, which the board this summer claimed had traded ahead of expectations in the second half of the year.
Scobie in July said the board was ‘confident’ of further disposals among its portfolio of bars and discos, which includes London’s Hippodrome on Leicester Square.
Analysts believe the group consolidation this year around its bowling and pool businesses should bring benefits next year.
Last week the Megabowl group also acquired a stake in Lan Arenea, the PC multiplayer gaming business with 25 gaming outlets in the UK.
CIMA-qualified Goulden joined Allied Leisure in 1995 as chief executive from the Compass Group, where he was MD of UK Special Catering.
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Forty-one-year-old ACMA-qualified FD Scott is a former FD of JD Wetherspoon and DSI Delta Systems International.