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British pubco Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has sold its 24 Hollywood Bowl tenpin bowling venues to AMF Bowling, which already operates 33 alleys across the country.
AMF is paying £27m for the business and brand, and M&B hopes to raise a further £12m by selling the freeholds of those bowling alleys where it owns the premises.
The sale, which follows M&B's recent disposal of 52 budget hotels, is part of its strategy to concentrate on its food-led pubs. AMF, originally American-owned, has since 2004 been a subsidiary of Bourne Leisure, which also owns Butlins.
The bowling firm's chief executive Richard Cook was reported as saying: “Bowling's a fairly fragmented industry and when Bourne bought this business, consolidation was high on the agenda. With this deal, we get to be a meaningful player to compete with other leisure industries like cinemas, restaurants and bingo.”
Hollywood Bowl has sites in Basildon, Birmingham, Bolton, Bracknell, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Crawley, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Norwich, Sheffield, Stevenage, Stockton, Taunton, Tolworth (branded as Charrington Bowl) and Watford.
There is little crossover with AMF's estate, which is largely concentrated in the northwest and southeast and comprises venues at Ashford, Bentley Bridge, Burnley, Bury, Carlisle, Chatham, Eastleigh, Glasgow, Gravesend, Havant, High Wycombe, Hull, Ilkeston, Keighley, Leeds, Macclesfield, Maidstone, Margate, Newcastle, Nottingham, Peterborough, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Stirling, Torquay, Washington, Wellingborough, Weston, Whitstable, Wigan and Worthing.
