Contract Award & Acquisitions

Mears Group PLC 02 October 2007 2 October, 2007 Mears Group PLC ('Mears' or the 'Company') Significant contract award in Care and homecare acquisitions update When the Group entered the domiciliary care market earlier this year there was a stated intention to be able to sell care services to its core client base of local authorities and registered social landlords. The Board is pleased to announce that the Group has been awarded a contract by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council for the provision of domiciliary care services for an initial period of three years plus a further potential two year extension. The initial contract value will be around £1 million per annum. Mears has had a strong presence in Wigan for many years and has a maintenance contract in place which runs until 2020. Mears acquired Careforce Group plc, one of the UK's leading providers of domiciliary care services, in April 2007 to facilitate an entry into the UK homecare market. On 7 June 2007, Mears announced the acquisition of Claremont Golcar Ltd (trading as Britannia Care). Britannia provides care primarily on contracts in Lancashire and Rochdale. Since that time Careforce has completed a further four acquisitions bringing a total of six new branches into the Group over the six months since Careforce was acquired. On 2 July 2007 the acquisition of Simply Care Ltd was completed. Simply Care operates from offices in the centre of Whitby, servicing contracts with North Yorkshire County Council, local PCT's and a high proportion of private clients. On 16 July 2007, the Group acquired Capable Care Ltd which operates from offices on the outskirts of Bristol, contracted to South Gloucestershire County Council and private clients. On 18 September, Care Connect Kirklees Ltd was acquired. Care Connect operates from offices in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, working for Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council. Most recently on 1 October, The Sentinel Group of companies was acquired. Sentinel operates from offices in Sheffield and Retford working for both Sheffield City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. These four acquisitions, which were not previously announced, were acquired from private individuals for a total consideration up to a maximum of £3.865 million in cash payable from existing resources. This comprises initial payments of £3.265 million followed by deferred payments of up to £0.6 million conditional upon the achievement of agreed performance targets over the 12 months following completion. The addition of these 5 branches has increased the volume of hours delivered per week by 8,000 and introduced an additional 266 carers to the Group. In the current year we anticipate turnover of £2 million from the four acquired businesses. In 2008 they are expected to generate turnover in excess of £6 million. Mike Rogers, Chairman of Careforce, commented: 'We are delighted to welcome these latest additions to our network of branches, which is steadily growing towards our aim of providing national coverage. There is a strong pipeline of further transactions on which we are currently working and anticipate being able to make further announcements in due course.' Bob Holt Group Chairman added 'The award of the Wigan contract supports our strategy to accelerate the growth of our Care business by building on the strength of the relationships in our social housing activities. It is our intention to continue to sell all Group services in a partnership ethos. Our acquisitions will give us a substantial base for future growth and I welcome all the employees into the Mears family.' For further information, please contact: Careforce Group Mears Group PLC Mike Rogers, Chairman Bob Holt Chairman 07778 798816 John Coleman, Finance Director David Robertson 07887 705357 Tel: 01438 310600 Andrew Smith 07712 866461 www.careforcegroup.co.uk www.mearsgroup.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange