Turnaround at Allied Leisure

Allied Leisure is emerging from its financial troubles and starting to think again about expanding its ten-pin bowling operations and possibly moving into another type of leisure business in the longer term.

After stripping out the contribution from the night clubs sold recently to Rank, Allied Leisure made a taxable profit of £600,000 from its 16 bowling alleys for the seasonably unfavourable half-year to Christmas Eve.

This compared with a £278,000 loss in the similar period in 1993. The depressed share price rose 3p to 20p.

Damien Harte, finance director, said: "We will look to build on the current progress, and improve the performance of the whole estate. There is a lot to go for in the existing units, but 16 is too small a number that needs to grow."

Expansion in bowling will come from new builds, or buying sites from independent operators.