New customer wins consolidate Gladstone Education's position within the EFMS market

11th November 2008 -

Gladstone plc (AIM:GLD), a leading provider of software solutions and services to the Education and Health & Leisure markets, is pleased to announce the following new customer wins and strategic partnerships that have been awarded to Gladstone Education.

Gladstone Education, a trading division of Gladstone plc, has emerged as a proven critical service provider within the Education Facilities Management Solutions ("EFMS") market; partnering with a number of key Information and Communication Technologies ("ICT"), Catering Services and Building & Construction Contractors including Northgate, Skanska, Civica, European Electronique and XMA.

The Group is pleased to announce that its technology has been successfully deployed in the several new projects, including:

Phase 1 of the Bristol Building Schools for the Future ("BSF") programme - this is part of the wider UK Government's BSF 15 year £45 billion capital investment programme - with four schools now operational and the final school due to be implemented in January 2009. Gladstone Education successfully implemented its OnRecord™ suite as part of a wider integrated solution; and is expected to continue to develop this project into its future phases in partnership with both Northgate Education and Skanska FM.

Gladstone Education has also worked with Civica to successfully install its OnRecord User Provisioning and Integration capabilities to the first of the Sheffield BSF contracts at Yewlands School and will continue a phased roll-out to all Sheffield BSF schools, as they are announced over the next five years, with the next three sites due to go live in January 2009.

Within the UK Government's £5 billion Academies Programme, Gladstone Education has also won the Burlington Danes and Evelyn Grace projects with XMA and Ark Academies, and implemented in partnership with XMA at the Corby Academy, Langley Academy and Nottingham Emmanuel sites.

Gladstone Education has also continued to develop its relationship with European Electronique by successfully implementing Gladstone OnRecord Cashless Catering into Wren Academy and Merchant Academy as they continue to strengthen their position in the Academies build space with Gladstone Education.

Elsewhere Gladstone Education has successfully implemented its flagship Gladstone OnRecord Cashless Catering and e-Registration solutions to the value of £350,000 into The Gateway Academy in Tilbury with Lorne Stewart and Keir Construction, - one of the largest single site projects in the UK. Within this pioneering site Gladstone has also facilitated the provision of additional solutions including Library Management, Asset Tagging, Access Control and CCTV provision to provide a fully integrated application with Gladstone OnRecordTM at its core.

Commenting upon the new contracts, Dr. Said Ziai, Chairman & Chief Executive of Gladstone plc, said: "We are delighted to have been chosen by a number of leading partners within the Education ICT space and also by a number of high-profile 21st century schools to fulfil their future education facilities management needs. The key to success within this sector for Gladstone has been to establish our organisations' credibility by collaborating with large contractors and other ICT systems providers to deliver integrated facilities management solutions.

"Gladstone's entry into the EFMS market and these subsequent contract wins have provided the Group with additional recurring revenue streams. Importantly, these new revenue streams have been derived from the UK government's long-term commitment to Public and Private Sector Education in the UK."

Press contact

Peter K. Doyle, Head of Marketing, Gladstone plc
T: 01491 202825
M: 07977 152009
pdoyle@gladstoneplc.com