Yorkshire’s Beverley Travel launched the new division, named Your Travel Partners, just a week after it was crowned the UK and Ireland’s No.1 Travel Agency at the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies award ceremony in Birmingham on 27 April.

The store soft-launched the new arm across its social channels around six weeks ago and gained interest from one travel partner, which inspired co-founders and directors Kelly Chessman and Karl Douglas to re-advertise the initiative last week – leading to a further three interest parties. 

The agency held an instore training session last Friday (5 May) and has since built a training programme to support new starters over the coming weeks and months.

Beverley Travel, which aims to recruit 10 agents during the first round of signups, will close its initial recruit drive at the end of May before reopening applications in September to give the first batch of agents enough time to train.

Speaking to TTG, Cheesman said launching the new brand was "exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time".

"Both Karl and I started as homeworkers with no experience and after achieving what we have, we have always felt there is a place within our business to help others to do the same," she added.

"There is a special place for homeworking in our industry, with flexibility and independence being key, and we feel strongly about helping others achieve success with the backing of a supportive team like ours."

The agency is also looking for an additional administrative staff member to support the onboarding of the new homeworkers.