The company was founded in 1988 in
Gloucestershire, where it is still based, was initially focused on the
social housing sector as a
contractor. In 1996, Mears Group was acquired by Bob Holt, who promptly took over management of the firm and embarked on an ambitious plan to greatly expand the business. That same year, it was
floated on the
Alternative Investment Market of the
London Stock Exchange as Mears Group plc. The late 1990s and early 2000s were a particularly prosperous time for the company; between 1996 and 2003, recorded profits increase at an annual compound rate of 42 per cent while its share value sometimes doubled within a single 12-month period, vastly outpacing the AIM average rates. Buoyed by strong financial performance, Mears Group adopted a strong acquisitive stance, albeit one that was largely restricted to within the facilities management sector, during this period. In 1999, the installer Haydon & Co was its first large acquisition. During 2007, Mears Group bought Careforce. One year later, the company was transferred to the main market on the London Stock Exchange. Despite events such as the
Credit Crunch and the
Great Recession, Mears Group continued to return strong results. Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, social housing was a particularly strong performing area for the business, to the extent that management sought to expand the firm's presence in the repair subsector. In contrast, the firm decided to withdraw from the
solar photovoltaic market in response to decreasing
feed-in tariffs. During 2011, the group took over more than 20 Home Improvement Services from
Anchor; one year later, it acquired
Morrison Facilities Services from
AWG plc. In 2013, the firm acquired Independent Living Services Scotland and launched Mears Nurseplus, enabling the company to offer health services as well as social care. Nurseplus (specialising in the care of adult and paediatric service users with complex health conditions, both acute and chronic that require clinical intervention and management) 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 2014,
Torbay 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. During June 2015, Mears Group bought
Care UK's home care division, with about 6,000 employees for £11.3 million. Subsequently renamed Mears Care, it looked after roughly 13,000 people at that time. 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. By June 2017, attributing its decision to challenging market conditions, Mears Group reduced the size of its care businesses by roughly 20 per cent; at this point, the housing sector was seen as a more viable business area. In December 2018, it was announced that, after 23 years as chief executive, Bob Holt was stepping down from active involvement in Mears Group and would be replaced by Kieran Murphy. 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. At the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic Mears moved 350 asylum seekers from living in their own private apartments to living in six hotels across the city, reducing their independence and reducing their ability to
social distance, often being moved with little or no prior notice. Charities like
Refuweegee and
Scottish Refugee Council drew attention to the conditions that people were being held in calling on the UK Government and their contractor Mears to restore the support payments and move people back into private accommodation. Elbi's father had been murdered by
ISIS in 2018, his youngest brother was kidnapped by ISIS in 2019, and Elbi himself had been detained and tortured by
Ansar al-Sharia. Adam was shot dead by armed police officers but the six stabbing victims survived. A report by the
Home Affairs Select Committee in July 2020 advised that asylum seekers "should not have been moved to new accommodation during the pandemic without justified and urgent reasons for doing so, or without a vulnerability assessment demonstrating that the move could be made safely." Baguma had been working in a restaurant to support herself, but after her
leave to remain had expired she wasn't allowed to work, meaning she was dependent on others for support including the asylum system. In January 2020, it announced that Mears Group intended 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 at that time; the firm stated that it would to concentrate on the provision of housing with care. Accordingly, the division was sold to Cera Care one month later. In July 2020,
Cornwall Council confirmed Mears Group as lead strategic partner for the delivery of extra care in Cornwall with a seven-year agreement for 750 extra care housing units worth £150 million. ==Political involvement==