Snooker hall and bowling operator, Georgica, has declared its intention to withdraw from its Allied Leisure operations.

The Allied portfolio comprises 33 Burger King restaurants, nine tenpin bowling centres and seven pubs and nightclubs which have shown improved perfomance despite the ‘poor condition and location’ of the businesses.

Georgica is in negotiations with the principal landlords of the sites, asking them to reduce their rental claims on Georgica and, in return, offering to transfer the whole of its equity in Allied Leisure to them as a group.

Georgica will only provide financial support to Allied until such time as an agreement is reached, or Georgica considers none can be reached.

Chair, Don Hanson, said he did not expect Allied to form part of the Georgica group by the time of the company’s next annual results.

Georgica is now focusing on developing its snooker and bowling businesses. In November, it acquired Duke Street Capital’s equity interest in Megabowl for £23m plus £65m debt.

Since then, 38 outlets have been transferred to a new subsidiary of Georgica, Tenpin, and will be refurbished and rebranded over the next two years.

Megabowl itself still operates 12 sites with lease commitments preventing the sites from being transferred to Tenpin. While negotiations continue, none of these sites will be refurbished.

In the company’s cue sports division, which operates 154 businesses, sales grew by 4.1 per cent over the year to 28 December 2003, largely due to an accelerated refurbishment programme.

So far, 43 sites have been refurbished, 19 as new format Rileys – which saw a 19.3 per cent sales rise in 2003.

During 2004, 44 outlets will be refurbished and six or seven new sites opened. By the end of 2005, the whole estate will be known as Rileys.