Regent fights back

Regent Inns has appointed two former Scottish & Newcastle directors in an attempt to revive the flagging company.

Bob Ivell, former chairman of S&N pubs division, joins as executive chairman, and John Leslie, former financial director of S&N's 1,500 pubs sold last year, becomes chief finance officer. Their appointment follows the abrupt departure of chief executive Steve Haupt and finance director Simon Rowe last month.

Regent's current chief executive, Peter Savage, who will revert to a non-executive director's role, described the last year as "challenging and difficult", saying he believed the new appointees were "well qualified to lead the company's recovery".

It will be a difficult task. Regent postponed its full year results in September, finally announcing that pre-tax profit before goodwill amortisation and exceptionals fell 15 per cent to £12.3m in the financial year 2003-2004. Non-cash exceptionals totalled £17.2m, relating to the impairment in value of a poorly performing venues and provisions against expensive leases.

Overall turnover was up 10.8 per cent to £122.7m and like-for-like sales decline for Walkabout and Jongleurs reduced modestly from -7.4 per cent to -5.4 per cent. As Regent clung on to the tentative signs of recovery, witnessed in a 0.9 per cent rise in like-for-like sales during the first 15 weeks of the new financial year, Savage was realistic about the tough task facing Regent's new directors.

"The high street bar sector has been under significant stress with over-capacity, intense price discounting and volatility all in evidence during the years. Our own performance has been mixed. Jongleurs held up well, but Walkabout was unable to hold its margins in the second half of the year," said Savage.

"It has been a challenging and difficult year for the company and events subsequent to the year-end have been particularly disappointing."

The slowdown in Walkabout's like-for-like sales decline was in part due the Antipodean-themed chain becoming more competitive on pricing, though this was not seen as a sustainable long-term solution for recovery.

Regent currently has 50 Walkabout, 17 Jongleurs and four Stonehouse bars.