Cokethorpe School is day school, with approximately 630 pupils aged 4-18, in Witney, Oxfordshire. The school approached MTM Consulting when considering a range of strategic options. To understand the feasibility of this, the school wanted to understand the socio-economic dynamics of current parents and those that live within a realistic catchment.
The project
We proposed using our unique 3-60 Market and Catchment Intelligence research tool to understand:
- The nature of their current families and how far they travel to school, defining a family profile and catchment area;
- The size of the addressable market across all age ranges within the catchment area, and from families who would be expected to consider a school like Cokethorpe;
- How this is projected to change over the next 12 months and up to 2031;
- How competitor schools have fared over the last decade;
- This would provide the school with a complete demand and supply analysis, and full visibility over the markets to which it caters.
Results
Our comprehensive report provided the data for developing an evidence-based business strategy.
We were able to demonstrate that, while the market was set to contract overall over the next decade, there was a considerable opportunity for the school to increase its market share and therefore maintain and/or increase numbers. These opportunities included identifying 22 new construction developments, along with identifying 3 geographical areas which are under-penetrated at the current time, with particular age groups identified as areas with potential for growth.