Mears Regulatory News (MER)

2 Oct 2007 09:36

Mears Group PLC02 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 astated intention to be able to sell care services to its core client base oflocal authorities and registered social landlords. The Board is pleased toannounce that the Group has been awarded a contract by Wigan MetropolitanBorough Council for the provision of domiciliary care services for an initialperiod of three years plus a further potential two year extension. The initialcontract value will be around £1 million per annum. Mears has had a strongpresence in Wigan for many years and has a maintenance contract in place whichruns until 2020. Mears acquired Careforce Group plc, one of the UK's leading providers ofdomiciliary care services, in April 2007 to facilitate an entry into the UKhomecare market. On 7 June 2007, Mears announced the acquisition of ClaremontGolcar Ltd (trading as Britannia Care). Britannia provides care primarily oncontracts in Lancashire and Rochdale. Since that time Careforce has completed a further four acquisitions bringing atotal of six new branches into the Group over the six months since Careforce wasacquired. On 2 July 2007 the acquisition of Simply Care Ltd was completed. Simply Careoperates from offices in the centre of Whitby, servicing contracts with NorthYorkshire 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 officeson the outskirts of Bristol, contracted to South Gloucestershire County Counciland private clients. On 18 September, Care Connect Kirklees Ltd was acquired. Care Connect operatesfrom offices in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, working for Kirklees MetropolitanBorough Council. Most recently on 1 October, The Sentinel Group of companies was acquired.Sentinel operates from offices in Sheffield and Retford working for bothSheffield City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. These four acquisitions, which were not previously announced, were acquired fromprivate individuals for a total consideration up to a maximum of £3.865 millionin cash payable from existing resources. This comprises initial payments of£3.265 million followed by deferred payments of up to £0.6 million conditionalupon the achievement of agreed performance targets over the 12 months followingcompletion. The addition of these 5 branches has increased the volume of hoursdelivered per week by 8,000 and introduced an additional 266 carers to theGroup. In the current year we anticipate turnover of £2 million from the four acquiredbusinesses. In 2008 they are expected to generate turnover in excess of £6million. Mike Rogers, Chairman of Careforce, commented: "We are delighted to welcomethese latest additions to our network of branches, which is steadily growingtowards our aim of providing national coverage. There is a strong pipeline offurther transactions on which we are currently working and anticipate being ableto make further announcements in due course." Bob Holt Group Chairman added "The award of the Wigan contract supports ourstrategy to accelerate the growth of our Care business by building on thestrength of the relationships in our social housing activities. It is ourintention to continue to sell all Group services in a partnership ethos. Ouracquisitions will give us a substantial base for future growth and I welcome allthe employees into the Mears family." For further information, please contact: Careforce Group Mears Group PLCMike Rogers, Chairman Bob Holt Chairman 07778 798816John Coleman, Finance Director David Robertson 07887 705357Tel: 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