Mears Group PLC is a housing and social care provider. It repairs and maintains over 700,000 social homes across the UK. It is the second largest home care provider in the UK.
History
The company was founded in 1988 in Gloucestershire, where it is still based, and floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, as Mears Group Plc in 1996. In 1999 it acquired Haydon & Co and in 2007 Careforce. In 2008, the group had 8000 employees, and moved to the main market at the London Stock Exchange, with a £420m turnover. In 2011 it took over more than 20 Home Improvement Services from Anchor, and in 2012 acquired Morrison Facilities Services from AWG plc. In 2012 it acquired Independent Living Services Scotland and launched Mears Nurseplus, enabling the company to offer health services as well as social care. Nurseplus was awarded a place on the NHS framework contract to supply staff into NHS establishments across Scotland in November 2014. In October 2014 it took over Omega Group Ltd, a private sector provider of residential lettings and management services to the social housing market. In December 2014Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust named the Group as the preferred bidder to run its Living Well@Home Services contract, integrating IT systems and deliver a range of community-based services for a minimum of five years. In June 2015 it bought Care UK's home care division, with about 6,000 employees for £11.3 million. Subsequently renamed Mears Care, it looked after about 13,000 people. In December 2016, executive director Alan Long announced that the company was pulling out of contracts with local authorities because it could not afford to operate on the money it was being paid. In January 2019, it was announced that Mears Group would take over a Home Office contract to provide housing for asylum seekers in Glasgow from Serco. In January 2020 it announced that it was to sell its domiciliary care division which employed 1,500 people across 18 branches in England and Wales and 1,000 people across 16 branches in Scotland. It planned to concentrate on providing housing with care. The division was sold to Cera Care in February 2020.
Performance
Profits in the first six months of 2014/5 were £18.7m, an increase of 11%. Total group revenue was down 3% from £439.1m to £428.1m. In a half-year trading update in July 2020, Mears said it expected to report a £6m loss after a 23% drop in revenue at its maintenance arm. Overall group revenue was down 8% to £405m. The company also announced it would be making an unspecified number of redundances, partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
Political involvement
Mears was nominated as a Social Mobility Business Compact ‘Champion’ after signing the Social Mobility Business Compact, set up by the Deputy Prime MinisterNick Clegg in 2011, to encourage employers to offer young people fair and open access to employment opportunities. The group, with the Local Government Information Unit, supported a report, in December 2014 by former care minister Paul Burstow calling for home care workers to be given key workers status and a living wage.
