Distress signals for First Leisure FIRST Leisure's flagship Blackpool operations struggled for business in the key illuminations month of September.

The company, which owns Blackpool Tower, the Winter Gardens and the resort's three piers, revealed slow sales in its trading statement this week.

Resorts division managing director Roy Page said: "September and October are usually our busiest trading months, but we were disappointed with our performance throughout September.

"It's very difficult to determine the cause, but it seemed to start with Princess Diana's death and business never recovered after that week, which was extremely bad.

"Another contributory factor could be building society windfalls which people chose to spend on going abroad, cars or home improvements.

"Traditionally we do extremely well in Blackpool. We consider this will be a blip. Sales appear to be recovering slightly and we're confident that next year we'll be back to normal."

Elsewhere its nightclubs, bars, health clubs and amusement centres performed well, but its bingo arm struggled, with £1.3m losses in the first six months of this year.

First Leisure shares have fallen from 376p in March to 287p yesterday, despite pugnacious talk of turning the company round from new executive chairman Michael Grade.

The Sunday Times last weekend speculated the company may be targeted for takeover by brewing conglomerate Bass.

Meanwhile Blackpool's other leisure giant, the Pleasure Beach, reported good trading.

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