Having decided on a strategy of major investment and growth Midlands Retailer, Webbs of Wychbold, used Cedar Associates to develop an integrated training programme to prepare their Managers and Supervisors to take on significantly more responsibility. In the same year as they tripled their retail space, they also won the GCA’s coveted Garden Centre of the Year award. Read more.....

The investment in people and planning has helped Webbs to successfully grow the business while maintaining staff motivation, retail and customer service standards in the store. The new shop development has not been without its challenges, but the foresight to invest in Manager and Supervisor skills in advance has certainly eased the growing pains. With around 400 people working in what is now the UK’s biggest garden centre, it has been vital to create a strong sense of team and a common purpose.

Since 2002 Cedar Associates have designed and delivered a modular management development programme for Retail Managers and have run a number of linked courses for Supervisors at Webbs. Other programmes included in the initiative were to develop Support Managers and provide training in Customer Service for all the staff. In addition, Lindsay Muir of Cedar Associates has facilitated a Workshop every few months to help Senior Managers address issues and opportunities.

Both the Retail Manager and Supervisor courses consisted of a series of 2 day modules including titles such as “Leading and Working as a Team”, “Finding and Keeping the Right People”, “Making Changes Happen”, “Getting Organised”, “Communicating Successfully”, “Getting the Best from Staff”, “Making Yourself Most Effective” , “Achieving Results” as well as several others.

Between all the modules delegates were asked to take on short projects to apply what they learned back at work. They reported back on what they had achieved on subsequent modules, and shared any problems they had encountered. The cumulative effects have had a very significant impact on the development of participant’s skill and confidence.