Case Study: Grapevine

Selecting a rising star from a pool of recently transitioned employee owned businesses is no easy feat – a fact the judging panel can attest to. It’s as much about recognising the Great EO impact and excellence a business has so far achieved as much as plotting that journey forward. 

For the 2025 UK Employee Ownership Awards, Grapevine was named ‘EO Rising Star of the Year’ in recognition of its move to employee ownership and putting community, culture, and continuity at the heart of its strategy. 

Over a thirty-four-year span, the business has evolved from a mobile provider into a full managed service outfit spanning cloud telephony, IT support, and more. But Grapevine’s most significant transformation has been structural and cultural rather than technological.

A Turning Point

By the early 2020s, Grapevine’s three founders were preparing for retirement, bringing a familiar succession question to the table. The standard exit – sell to a larger operator and let the business be absorbed – hung in the air. It was a similar route taken by plenty of others in the sector and came with predictable consequences. Consolidation. Centralisation. The quiet disappearance of the original workforce.

Grapevine could have followed suit. But the leadership team recognised the business’ strength lay as much in its relationships as its service portfolio. Staff had stayed for decades, clients just as long. The business had become part of the commercial fabric of Dorset and the South West. To jeopardise this would have cost the business the very things that set it apart and made it a great place to work in the first place.

So instead of looking outward for a buyer, the founders looked inside the business. An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) offered a way to safeguard Grapevine’s values, reward loyalty, and give staff a genuine stake in the next chapter. Strong customer retention, robust commercial performance, and opportunities for real growth further made the business case for transition.

The move to employee ownership completed in March 2023. Two years later, annual turnover had jumped from £3 million to £5 million, and £50,000 had already been paid out to colleagues in early profit share. But none of this occurred without robust planning in place and a firm groundwork laid.

A Human Transition

Before the transition, Grapevine’s board consisted of five shareholder-directors. With three set to retire, the remaining two became the natural custodians of stability, but they wouldn’t be acting alone. A new Board of Trustees and an Employee Forum were formed.

In so doing, the business created the structures that would give both shape and voice to its employee ownership.

The Employee Forum brought together a thirty-year veteran, a mid-career colleague, and a new recruit barely a year into their tenure. Truly a cross-section of the business in three people. It also provided living breathing proof that employee ownership works best when the room includes a range of ages, backgrounds, and perspectives. 

Perhaps the defining feature of Grapevine’s transition, though, was its insistence on individual conversations. Every employee was spoken to one-to-one about the move to EO. There was no mass meeting or one-size-fits-all slide deck, just honest, open conversations and space as much for questions as for doubts. 

The Employee Forum then repeated the exercise, digging deeper into what mattered to people. Eleven themes emerged, from wellbeing and working arrangements to client relationships, training, business development, resilience, and future recruitment. Staff were invited to rank them, creating a shared, democratically set priority list for the first year of EO.

Rewriting Business Architecture

Once the ink on the transition was dry, the business turned its attention to the architecture of governance and culture.

One of the most symbolic changes was the redesign of Grapevine’s organisational structure. Out went the traditional vertical chart, in came a more horizontal representation of how work, responsibility, and collaboration flow through the business. 

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding about employee ownership is that it turns a business into a commune. But Grapevine’s new structure didn’t pretend hierarchy didn’t exist, it simply reframed it. The business acknowledged that leadership could happen in any direction, and that ownership isn’t shaped like a pyramid. But EO is a mechanism through which Great EO leadership can flourish, and new leaders can rise from any area of a business.

As Grapevine settled into its new identity, it became clear that additional leadership capacity would help sustain momentum. A Senior Management Team comprising three longstanding colleagues was formed in the second year of the business’ EO. This new team reinforced the board, creating more space for strategic thinking and shared leadership.

Transparency grew, too. The company intranet became a central hub for strategy papers and monthly profit and loss reports. A weekly Monday email, which had initially been a simple update, became a core internal rhythm. And at the end of its first financial year of being EO, Grapevine held its inaugural AGM, giving co-owners a clear, unvarnished view of commercial performance and ESG activity.

Feedback mechanisms were introduced with equal seriousness. Colleagues could raise issues or ideas anonymously or openly, with every submission receiving a considered response from leadership. As survey and group discussions were trialled, participation widened and the sense of shared ownership grew. 

A Culture Learning its Own Vocabulary

Culture is often the hardest part of EO to embed. So, Grapevine adopted the same level of patience and careful consideration here as with every other aspect of its transition.

After the business felt sufficiently aligned and EO more lived-in, the business formally adopted the term ‘co-owner’ for all staff in its second post-transition AGM.  

Further highlighting the evolution, the AGM officially became the ‘Co-owner’s Annual Meeting’. The weekly email became the ‘Co-owner’s Weekly Update’. Even the staff room became the ‘Co-owner’s Lounge’. All subtle changes that have a powerful impact in embedding the shift from staff to stakeholder. 

Around this time, Grapevine issued a reflective survey. One question, asking what co-owners value about the business, produced the raw material for what would become the ‘Grapevine Co-owner Charter’. Key themes were identified that formed the basis of a draft that was handed back to all co-owners for feedback. The final version was issued on EO Day 2025. Each co-owner received a printed copy to sign as a pledge to themselves and their peers. The eoa have cited the charter as an example of Great EO practice and it’s been adopted by multiple EO businesses since then. You can download the charter yourself from the eo Hub by clicking or tapping here.

A New Story to Tell

After thirty-four years, Grapevine found itself re-emerging in the regional consciousness. EO made introductions easier, made networking feel less like selling and more like sharing, and it shifted conversations from “what we sell” to “who we are”. 

This also set the tone for a flurry of recognition and accolades. In 2023, the business was named ‘Best Place to Work’ at the Dorset Business Awards. In 2024, it contributed an article on EO to Dorset Business Focus and took part in a panel hosted by Salad Creative, a fellow eoa member and long-time client. 

By 2025, Grapevine was appearing on university programmes, management courses, and podcasts including Northumbria University’s ‘Why Small Business Matters’. Its involvement with the ‘You Are The Media’ community brought further speaking opportunities and, with them, a growing reputation as an articulate, grounded voice for all the benefits of EO.

And, of course, the business was named ‘EO Rising Star of the Year’ at the 2025 UK EO Awards.

EO also began generating business. Two new commercial relationships emerged directly from activity within the EO community.

EO as a Catalyst for Action

For Grapevine, employee ownership isn’t only showing up in culture and communications but positively altering operations and social impact.

A full pay review post-transition allowed the business to secure Living Wage accreditation. Each co-owner gained an additional annual volunteering day. Existing support for Julia’s House Children’s Hospices deepened with the launch of a Grapevine-branded MVNO enabling 5% of monthly line rental revenue to flow directly to the charity.

In February 2025, Grapevine signed the Armed Forces Covenant, committing to creating pathways for ex-military personnel and supporting reservists with necessary training time.

EO has even shaped client relationships. Grapevine has directly supported two clients through their own EO transitions. Internally, co-owners who previously felt rooted to office-based roles have begun stepping forward to represent the business externally. A powerful sign of growing confidence and the subtle behaviour shifts of shared ownership.

A Rising Star Still in Ascent

If there’s a thread running through Grapevine’s entire EO journey, it’s intentionality. Nothing’s been rushed or adopted purely for show. Whether structural, cultural, or commercial, every step of the way has been carefully layered on what came before. 

It’s all resulted in a business that feels renewed without losing its roots, confident without being self-congratulatory, and ambitious without compromising the values that shaped it.

A rising star, yes, but one who’s only just begun to chart its course.

Enter the UK Employee Ownership Awards 2026 now.