Case Study: The Garden Centre Association achieves 500% training growth and lower costs with Totara

GCA expands training by 500% whilst dramatically cutting member training costs

The Garden Centre Association needed a better way to train seasonal staff across its member garden centres, many of whom had limited horticultural knowledge and required basic, consistent training in multiple languages. With traditional training too costly and hard to scale, the GCA looked to Totara and its Totara Learn platform to create a centralised learning portal for members.

Totara implemented a multi-tenant LMS with user-level language options, reporting, certification, and bespoke training pathways for different roles. The result was major growth and savings: GROW expanded membership by 500%, now supports 119 garden centres and over 11,000 employees, and some members reported a 90% reduction in training costs, with 100% participation common and compulsory training completed much faster.

The Garden Centre Association

Steve Fry

Duty Manager