Panache aiming to become 'world's largest luxury cruise retailer by 2030'
Panache Cruises is on a mission to become the world’s largest luxury cruise retailer by 2030, driven by an expansion of its tour operating business, according to the agency’s boss James Cole.
Cole, who founded the Chorley-based agency in May 2020, revealed the company will achieve an annual turnover of more than £20 million by the end of the year.
Outlining his future goals, Cole said: “Tour operating is something that we’re expanding. I want to grow it to be a significant part of our business. We’re really pushing forward with that - I want to grow it to be 25% of the business next year.”
When asked how many bookings were for Panache’s tour operations products, Cole said: “It has been a very low single digit percentage but over the last couple of months we’ve turned the dial up and we’re well on the way to achieving that goal.”
Cole said the agency’s goal was to be the world’s largest retailer of luxury cruises by the end of the decade.
“We’ve got wars breaking out, we’ve got the cost-of-living crisis and inflation is stubbornly high,” he said, adding: “But we’re continually optimistic that our customers still keen to travel.
“They’ve got cash and they want to travel further for longer.
“Our top 40 customers have made 270 bookings with us. That’s a great stat for the future.”
Cole also revealed 78% of bookings over the last three months were for 2024, adding: “Our average booking value has grown 26% year-on-year.”
He noted how some customers were booking as far ahead as 2026.
“We’re in great shape,” added Cole. “We only focus on colleagues, customers and cruise lines.
“For these three things, nothing is too much trouble.”
Panache Cruises last month announced that it wanted to train more than 100 apprentices by 2030, with a view to dramatically expanding its workforce over the coming years.
It currently has 11 apprentices working within its marketing, finance, sales and customer service teams.
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Place of registration: England and Wales.
Company number 08723341.
Registered address: 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU
