WALKABOUT and Jongleurs comedy club owner Regent Inns has called time on happy hour by unveiling a 16.6 per cent fall in its half-year profits.

Regent put the fall, from £10.6m to £8.9m this year, down to a business shake-up and higher marketing costs.

But the announcement will put staff in its two major Southampton operations on their guard following, as it does, a delay in publishing results because of accounting problems.

The troubled group has also seen some high-profile departures.

A trio of directors left and were replaced, while there have been several site sales and no recent openings.

Regent, which has a Walkabout bar and a Jongleurs club on Southampton High Street, said it had streamlined its head office operations and made 27 people redundant to revive the flagging business.