Graystone’s expertise and experience in this market is second to none. The team takes great care to understand your business and isn’t afraid to challenge you to arrive at a plan that will cut through the market. They helped us develop ideas that we would not have conceived and shaped them so we could take them to market with certainty. We are now delivering tangible results to the business and our members, so the future looks very positive for the brand.
Stuart Newman, Head of Mobile at MobileCoop
The Business Challenge
OurCoop is the UK’s largest independent co-operative Society, bringing together a family of cooperative businesses including broadband and mobile, food, travel, early years, funeral care, energy, Post Offices and business solutions.
As a member-owned organisation, with more than one million members, OurCoop exists to create value together and reinvest it for the long-term benefit of its communities.
MobileCoop, an MVNO operated by Our Coop, has been trading since 2011 offering award winning customer service, additional member benefits, and an ethical, carbon neutral mobile proposition.
Following an internal business review, OurCoop identified an opportunity to grow its mobile business, recognising that specialist industry expertise would be required to unlock its full potential.
Key objectives included broadening customer appeal, developing a competitive yet margin generative proposition, and strengthening its position in an increasingly price-driven MVNO market.
While the business started from a position of strength, with a significant membership base, retail footprint and complementary group businesses, it needed support to better leverage these assets and evolve its proposition to meet the needs of both members and shoppers.
The Solution
OurCoop engaged Graystone Strategy to undertake a strategic review of its mobile proposition, focused on identifying growth opportunities, enhancing commercial performance and understanding existing customer value.
Graystone deployed a multi-disciplinary team of experts to work with the MobileCoop team, combining market opportunities with hands-on experience of launching and scaling MVNOs.
A series of collaborative workshops were delivered. During these, the Graystone Strategy team presented global best practice for MVNOs and leveraged its experience of launching multiple retail MVNOs.
The workshops also explored current commercial drivers for your MobileCoop, the values of the organisation and critical customer insights. These were used to conduct a detailed review of the customer proposition and map it against competitors.
Using the insights and data, Graystone developed several strategies and proposition options alongside identifying immediate commercial quick wins to build early momentum.
A high-level commercial case was also developed including a comprehensive analysis of customer utilisation and wholesale costs, alongside a wholesale bench marking exercise.
Outcomes
A nine-point plan was delivered to the senior stakeholders. This set out recommendations for short and long-term proposition development.
It included the recommendation to leverage OurCoop’s travel business and launch a travel eSIM. This was subsequently delivered in summer 2025 and has been very successful.
It’s appeal to TravelCoop’s customers and shoppers was quickly validated, with positive initial performance indicating strong demand for a value-led, trusted travel connectivity proposition.