The Chorley-based agency took £35 million in the 12 months to the end of July – a 56% year-on-year jump from the £22.5 million turnover it achieved during the same period a year earlier (2023/24).
To cope with the increase in demand, the firm has recruited cruise connoisseurs Lisa Buckley, Wendy Mulholland and Rob Ledsham, as well as finance apprentice Amy Ainsworth, with chief executive James Cole keen to continue tapping new talent.
“We’ve really intensified our efforts across the business," he said. "We’ve focused on our colleagues, making sure we develop our management teams. We’ve also invested heavily in apprentices, and plan to recruit another eight this year."
Since 2021, Panache’s top 40 UK customers have booked 460 cruises with the agency, spending more than £7.5 million in the process. “The combination of having an established customer base and consistently attracting new customers is really encouraging and testimony to the hard work of the team," Cole added.
Panache is also celebrating the first anniversary of its US office, which has achieved sales of £7.3 million, while in the last 12 months, Panache’s global workforce has grown from 67 to 76.
Cole, who launched Panache in 2020, hailed the US office in Orlando, Florida, a huge step for the business. "We gave the US market a lot of respect," he said. "We knew that how we dealt with colleagues, customers and the cruise lines in the US was going to be very different than the UK.
"They may speak the same language as us ,but we still did our research and preparation."
Cole revealed the holiday and pension packages Panache was offering was initially met with "scepticism" by US office staff. “They asked – ‘why would you want to do that?’," said Cole. "It took us several months to get them onside and gain their trust.
"We wanted to give our US colleagues more holiday than they were used to with 20 days [and] give them a 401(k) pension match, which we understand is very unusual for a start-up in the US.
“We also wanted to contribute to a private medical insurance from day one, which is also relatively unusual for a startup in the US.”
Cole said he had visited the US office eight times since it opened last year. “We want them to feel they are part of Panache Cruises,” he continued. “We have a full team weekly meeting every Tuesday or Thursday. We do it at 3.30pm so the US office can dial in so we’re all together. We want everybody to feel they’re part of a global organisation."
