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: [phone]                       Andrew Smith        07712 866461

www.careforcegroup.co.uk                www.mearsgroup.co.uk



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