The Channel Islands Coop is a pan-island cooperative society and retailer serving the communities of Jersey and Guernsey. As it is a cooperative, the society is owned by its 125,000 members. The Channel Island Coop operates 45 retail premises across the Channel Islands including large format Supermarkets, convenience stores, filling stations and pharmacies.
Graystone’s in-depth knowledge in launching MVNOs has underpinned our approach to bidding for a licence. Thanks to its involvement, we have developed an offer that enhances our commitment to giving loyal members great value for money and leverages our existing membership and retail footprint.
CEO of Channel Island Coop, Mark Cox
The Business Challenge
The merger between Sure and Airtel, the second and third mobile operators on the Channel Islands, triggered a review of the impact of this merger by the telecoms and competition regulatory authorities. The regulators agreed that the merger would be approved on the condition that the merged Sure / Airtel entity would enable an MVNO to ensure that Channel Island consumers continued to have a competitive choice of mobile providers.
Having seen the success of retail and supermarket MVNOs globally, the Coop decided to bid to become the third operator. To do this successfully it needed MVNO and, in particular, retail MVNO expertise.
The Solution
The Coop engaged Graystone Strategy as its advisory and delivery consultants for the MVNO project. The scope of the project was broad, encompassing negotiating the wholesale deal with the MNO, developing the customer proposition, undertaking market and customer research, liaising with the regulator and developing the detailed business case for presentation to the Coop Board to gain approval for the MVNO project.
Graystone built a core team of five consultants with the relevant skills and experience to deliver the project. This included commercial, technical, marketing, research and operational experts all of whom had first hand experience of building and trading MVNOs in the retail sector.
Key deliverables for the first phase of this project were agreement on the licence with both regulatory authorities, a completed wholesale contract with Sure that delivered commercials that would enable growth, a detailed proposition and a fully completed financial model with key 5-year KPIs such as revenue, margin, CAPEX, OPEX and EBITDA.
Outcomes
The board approved the MVNO project in April 2024. The Jersey regulatory authorities approved the merger and the MVNO in May 2024 and Guernsey approved it in September 2024. This meant that the MVNO had a green light and a commitment to launch within 12 months.
Speaking of the project and the contribution made by Graystone Strategy, Mark Cox, CEO of Channel Island Coop, said. “Graystone’s in-depth knowledge in launching MVNOs has underpinned our approach to bidding for a licence. Thanks to its involvement, we have developed an offer that enhances our commitment to giving loyal members great value for money and leverages our existing membership and retail footprint.”
The project has now moved into the delivery phase. Graystone continues to drive this, providing a managed service to the Coop to deliver the MVNO to market in 2025.