diff --git a/plugin/plugin.jelly b/plugin/plugin.jelly
index 81471f6b..53d51749 100644
--- a/plugin/plugin.jelly
+++ b/plugin/plugin.jelly
@@ -198,6 +198,7 @@
     <u:file var="localPluginFile" 
       name="${maven.repo.local}/${groupId}/plugins/${artifactId}-${version}.jar" />        
     <j:if test="${!localPluginFile.exists()}">
+      <ant:mkdir dir="${maven.repo.local}/${groupId}/plugins" />
       <j:set var="repoList">${maven.repo.remote}</j:set>
       <u:tokenize var="repos" delim=",">${repoList.trim()}</u:tokenize>
     
diff --git a/plugin/xdocs/changes.xml b/plugin/xdocs/changes.xml
index bb7604e4..6fc9a343 100644
--- a/plugin/xdocs/changes.xml
+++ b/plugin/xdocs/changes.xml
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
   </properties>
   <body>
     <release version="1.3-SNAPSHOT" date="in CVS">
+      <action dev="brett" type="fix" issue="MPPLUGIN-13">
+        Create local repository directory first so plugin:download doesn't fail when it doesn't exist
+      </action>
       <action dev="dion" type="update">
         Add optional msg attribute to assertFileExists and assertEquals tags
       </action>
