THE closure of Riley Leisure just days before Christmas brought to an end one of the oldest and most famous businesses in East Lancashire's manufacturing history.

Business editor Andrew Calvert charts the snooker success story which ended with staff suffering the ultimate bad break...

WHEN John Edward Riley turned his back on a job as a Manchester bank clerk to manufacture billiard tables he could not have dreamed that his products would become a household name throughout the world.

But within a 100 years, Riley was the world's most recognised snooker brand, with its tables exported to more than 60 countries and its cues used by world champions such as Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.

It is all the more remarkable then, that around 10 years after reaching its peak, such a wonderful success story has come to an end.

Riley's love of sport led him to first open a string of sports stores in Manchester and then his own company to manufacture English billiard tables, golf clubs, soccer balls, tennis rackets and cricket bats.

E.J. Riley opened for business in Accrington in 1897 and, within a decade, the company was the world's largest manufacturer of English billiard tables, producing 800 full-sized and 4,000 smaller tables per year.

The pressure of demand became so great that, in the early 1920s, other areas of production were sidelined and the stores in Manchester sold, allowing Riley to concentrate solely on billiards.

In 1925, E. J. Riley died, yet during his time within the sport's industry the company had become the world leader and owned a chain of 40 billiard halls within the UK.

Business boomed at the Pioneer Works in Accrington as snooker gradually took over from billiards and tables crafted in East Lancashire were exported to every corner of the world.

The company was also a pioneer in the world of sports sponsorship. In 1954, it paid the then fledgling professionals Ray Reardon and John Spencer £5 a week to promote the Riley name.

As televised snooker took off in the 1980s, the company signed up most of the game's top players and and world champion Steve Davis performed the honours at the official opening of its new factory in Padiham in 1984.

By 1995, the cost of sports sponsorship had soared with Stephen Hendry being signed up on a five-year deal worth £660,000.

Riley, once a Stock Exchange-listed company, went through a succession of owners in the 1980s and 1990s.

A move from Padiham to the Network 65 Business Park at Hapton coincided with the company's bid to take advantage of the boom in pool.

But the firm began to suffer from financial problems in the late 1990s as competition increased and production and distribution costs rose.

A management buy-out in 1999 failed to arrest the decline in the company's fortunes and Riley was put into administration in November.

When the company closed the doors to its Hapton factory for the last time with the loss of 100 jobs, it marked the end of an era.

BCE Distributors - its Bedford-based competitor - has bought the Riley name and trademarks along with the remaining snooker stock.

Managing director Stuart Lacey confirmed the company would not be restarting production at Burnley.

The 'Riley' name, however, will live on -- albeit on its big rival's tables. "We will be channelling the Riley brand back into the market," added Mr Lacey.

Mike Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, was sad to see the end of snooker table manufacturing. "You have to bemoan the passing of a household brand that is synonymous with snooker throughout the world," he said.

Warehouse supervisor David Wells summed up the mood of the workers as he left the factory for the final time. "Things have gone downhill in the last couple of years since the management buy-out and now they have completely collapsed," he said.

"People feel depressed and down because it was such a good company to work for. I have worked here since I left school at 16."

Burnley MP Peter Pike had been working with the company in its final few weeks in an effort to save the business. "Its very sad indeed and it is a pity that we've reached this situation," he said.