John McCarthy and Bill Stone became partners in 1961, and in 1977 they built their first retirement housing development in Hampshire. Subsequently they ceased other building work to concentrate on developing specialist housing for elderly people. By 1982, when the company was floated on the Unlisted Securities Market, McCarthy & Stone had completed 15 retirement housing developments and was selling around 200 units a year. Growth was rapid after the flotation, and by 1984 the company operated on a national basis with annual sales approaching 1,000 units. The business was exceptionally profitable due to a rapidly ageing population. Annual sales reached 2,601 units in 1988.