For immediate release                                                                                                           20 July 2018

STAFFLINE GROUP PLC

("Staffline")

Acquisition of Grafton Recruitment's Ireland businesses ("Grafton")

Staffline, the Recruitment and Training group, announces today that it has completed the acquisition of two subsidiaries of Grafton Recruitment Ireland Holdings Limited, Grafton Recruitment Limited (Northern Ireland) and Grafton Recruitment Limited (Republic of Ireland), together "Grafton". Grafton is a leading provider of recruitment and employment services in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with over 30 years of experience. Based on the latest publicly available audited annual accounts to 31 March 2017, annual turnover of the two companies combined is £74m, pre-tax profit is £0.7m and net assets total £2.5m.

The acquisition supports Staffline's strategic goal to build and develop the largest, most reliable workforce across the UK and Ireland. The addition of Grafton to Staffline's Ireland division will significantly increase the Group's scale and presence in the Irish market. Following this acquisition, Staffline will be the clear market leader in Northern Ireland and the second largest recruitment business across the island of Ireland. Tina McKenzie, Staffline's Group Managing Director in Ireland, will take responsibility for the Grafton business, in addition to overseeing Staffline's existing businesses across the island.

The acquisition is being funded out of Staffline's existing resources.

Chris Pullen, Chief Executive Officer of Staffline, commented:

"We are delighted to announce this strategic acquisition of Grafton which will bring an extensive network of connections and resources in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to the Staffline group. It will further strengthen our Ireland division, cementing Staffline's position as a leading recruitment business in the Irish market. With a number of large blue-chip clients, and as a respected brand amongst both employers and candidates across the island of Ireland, Grafton is an exciting addition to the Staffline network".

About Staffline - Recruitment, Training and Support

Enabling the Future of Work™

Staffline is the UK's market leading Recruitment and Training group. It has two divisions:

Recruitment Division

The UK's leading provider of flexible blue-collar workers, supplying over 60,000 staff per day to c. 1,500 private sector clients, across a wide range of industries including agriculture, drinks, driving, food processing, logistics and manufacturing.  It operates from over 400 locations in UK, Eire and Poland.

Its world leading Customer Experience platform provides optimised customer-based staffing management solutions whilst providing market-leading levels of job satisfaction for workers.

PeoplePlus Division

The leading adult skills and training provider in the UK, delivering apprenticeships, adult education, prison education and skills-based employability programmes across the country.

Education and Training - market leading provider of training courses for private sector Apprenticeships (both Levy and non-Levy) and Government funded Adult Skills programmes.

Employability - top quartile performer, supporting Government programmes providing back-to-work education and support services to the unemployed.

Justice and Community - education and training services for prisoners and probationers, as well as individual support services for carers and people with disabilities, both at home and in the work place