Managing director quits Tomorrows after 17 days

STEPHEN Lovely, managing director of North-east-based Tomorrows Leisure for 17 days, has resigned, writes Robert Cole.

Sources close to the company suggest Mr Lovely has fallen out with John Sanderson, chairman and 37 per cent shareholder.

The company is heavily indebted. It has pounds 14m of borrowings and it is thought that Barclays Bank, Tomorrows' banker, is keeping the management on a very tight rein.

Tomorrows owns the site of the 1984 Garden Festival in Liverpool, a country house hotel in County Durham, and a string of smaller leisure facilities.

Mr Sanderson, the company's founder, reassumed the chairmanship of Tomorrows in February two months after he had stepped aside, unseating the replacement management.

The departure of Mr Lovely yesterday is surprising because he was appointed by Mr Sanderson.

Mr Lovely's appointment on 6 July was accompanied by a trading statement that said losses for the year to 31 March were substantially more than pounds 1m. It also said Mr Sanderson had lent the company pounds 250,000 to help finance working capital requirements.

The shares, which graduated from a Business Expansion Scheme through the now defunct Third Market to the USM, were unchanged at 18p yesterday.