Expansion ofBrokingActivities

W.H. Ireland Group PLC
17 January 2001

                           W. H. IRELAND GROUP PLC

                               ('W.H. Ireland')

                                  ANNOUNCES

                EXPANSION OF INSTITUTIONAL BROKING ACTIVITIES

W.H. Ireland Group, the Manchester-based stockbroker which obtained a
quotation on AIM in July 2000, is today delighted to announce the expansion of
its institutional broking capability with the addition of a team headed by
Peter Dzedzora. The team joins from Henry Cooke.

At the time of its flotation, W.H. Ireland stated that a key objective was to
build its position in corporate broking and corporate finance, areas which
offer high growth potential and in which the group currently has only a
limited presence. This expansion is part of the group's strategy to broaden
its range of activities. The appointment of the three-man team of Peter
Dzedzora, David Gorman and Roger Jones is an important step towards achieving
this objective.

Peter Dzedzora, aged 38, will be appointed a Director of W. H. Ireland
Limited. He was formerly a Director of Henry Cooke Lumsden plc where he worked
from 1993. He has worked in both equity research as a smaller companies
analyst and in institutional sales. Peter began his career in stockbroking
with BWD Rensburg.

David Gorman, aged 36, joined Henry Cooke as an investment analyst in 1996.
David has an MBA from Manchester Business School. He specialises in smaller
companies. In the Reuters UK Smaller Companies Survey 2000, he achieved a
ranking in the top ten analysts in the chemicals sector.

Roger Jones, aged 47, has worked in stockbroking for the last 25 years,
latterly in institutional sales. He has substantial experience in
institutional and corporate broking particularly in the smaller companies
arena. During his career, he has worked for Greig Middleton & Co and James
Capel.

The new team will have an equity participation in W. H. Ireland from the
outset.

These appointments follow the expansion of W. H. Ireland's investment research
capability over the final quarter of 2000, when the group added three
analysts. These were: Audrey Carroll, who joined from Henry Cooke and is now
head of research at W. H. Ireland; Alison Rennie, who was previously at Greig
Middleton & Co writing equity research on smaller companies and Barry Dawes,
who specialises in the analysis of the mining and resources sectors and has
considerable experience gained from working with Bankers Trust Australia
Limited, Bain Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Bank Limited.

Laurie Beevers, Chief Executive of W. H. Ireland, commented:

'We are delighted to welcome Peter, David and Roger to W. H. Ireland. They
make up a well-respected team with excellent institutional client contacts and
a proven track record. They will add significantly to our current research and
broking capability and we see this development as a terrific opportunity for
us to accelerate our ambitions to grow our corporate broking and corporate
finance operations.'

ENDS

Enquiries:

W. H. Ireland:      Laurie Beevers   Chief Executive      Tel: [phone]
                    David Youngman   Managing Director
Biddick Associates: Katie Tzouliadis                      Tel: [phone]