How the GCA modernised its learning platform and scaled training to 11,000+ users

“I’m grateful the Hubken team took the time to ensure our members and learners were set up for success from day one.”

Antony Snow, Instructional Designer, Garden Centre Association

Industry

membership

Use case

Member training

Solution

Hubken LMS

Outcomes at a glance

Reduced complexity by removing unsupported legacy customisations

No. Users

+11,000 users

Sector/Use Case

Phuong Hong Nguyen

Digital Marketing Executive

How the Garden Centre Association modernised its e-learning platform and scaled training to 11,000+ users

The Garden Centre Association (GCA) is a UK-based membership organisation established in 1966, representing garden centres and suppliers across the horticultural retail sector.

Today, it brings together over 200 garden centre members and 150+ associate supplier members, acting as a forum for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and industry best practice. A core part of its offering is its digital learning platform, which supports staff development and customer experience across the membership network.

Through its e-learning programme, more than 11,000 garden centre employees access training designed to improve product knowledge, customer service, compliance, and operational standards across participating sites.

The Challenge

“Our previous site had several customisations which could no longer be supported. Hubken’s project and support teams took the time to understand what these customisations were and provided me with essential help, advice, and guidance on how our new LMS could continue to work for us without them. The whole implementation process was brilliant, start to finish. And when we went live, the team that Hubken has on the support desk – absolutely brilliant.”

Antony Snow 
Instructional Designer, Garden Centre Association

Having used its existing learning platform since 2013, the GCA found that the system had become increasingly difficult and costly to maintain.

Key challenges included:

  • An outdated system requiring significant upgrade and modernisation
  • Legacy customisations that made ongoing support complex and expensive
  • Rising upgrade costs that risked increasing membership fees
  • Limited flexibility in delivering a consistent, scalable learning experience
  • The need to ensure continuity of service for thousands of learners across multiple member organisations

Following a review of options, the GCA sought a new partner who could simplify the platform, reduce cost complexity, and support long-term scalability without disrupting learners or the member experience.

The Solution

The GCA partnered with Hubken to migrate its learning platform to a managed cloud environment and upgrade to the latest version of the Hubken LMS.

The project was designed to improve stability, scalability, and continuity of learning delivery across its membership network.

Seamless migration and upgrade: Over a three-month period, Hubken successfully migrated all tenants, learners, courses, enrolments, completion records, and historical data, ensuring minimal disruption to day-to-day operations.
Simplified, future-ready platform: Hubken removed unsupported customisations and replaced them with more sustainable configuration options, improving maintainability and reducing long-term cost and complexity.
Multi-tenant structure for member organisations: The platform enables each garden centre to operate within its own secure, branded environment, with tailored dashboards and reporting, while remaining part of a centralised system.
Improved reporting and learner visibility: Administrators and member organisations now benefit from clearer insights into learner activity, progress, and certification status, supporting stronger oversight of training and compliance.
Enhanced support and user experience: Hubken provides ongoing hosting, support, and training, ensuring the platform remains stable, responsive, and easy to manage for both administrators and learners.

“I’m grateful the Hubken team took the time to ensure our members and learners were set up for success from day one. Hubken has provided us with a platform we can truly be proud of.”

Antony Snow 
Instructional Designer, Garden Centre Association

The Impact

The upgraded platform has strengthened the GCA’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality training across its membership network.

  • 11,000+ learners actively using the platform across UK garden centres
  • 117 garden centres participating across 47 member organisations
  • Stable, cloud-based infrastructure with improved reliability and performance
  • Reduced complexity and cost associated with legacy customisations
  • Improved user experience for both learners and administrators
  • Scalable foundation supporting ongoing growth across the UK and international interest, including Canada

“I think it’s fair to say that we were smitten right from our first conversation with Hubken. From what we were hearing and the impressions that we got from the people that we spoke to, it seemed that Hubken was the kind of organisation that we wanted to work with – it just felt like a really good fit.”

Antony Snow 
Instructional Designer, Garden Centre Association

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