Cruise retailer goes on hiring spree after record turnover of £35m

Luxury cruise retailer Panache Cruises has reported record turnover of £35m for the 12 months to the end of July 2025 and made a string of new hires.

The turnover equates to a 56 per cent year-on-year rise from the £22.5m turnover the Chorley-based firm achieved for the same period in 2023/24.

Panache Cruises has also celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of their US office, which achieved sales of $10m (£7.3m).

To cope with the increased demand the firm has made a string of new hires including cruise connoisseurs Lisa Buckley, Wendy Mulholland and Rob Ledsham, along with finance apprentice Amy Ainsworth.

James Cole, chief executive, said: “We’re delighted by our latest record-breaking turnover and the new colleagues that have joined the business.

“We’ve really intensified our efforts across the business. We’ve focused on our colleagues, making sure we develop our management teams. 

“We’ve invested heavily in apprentices and plan to recruit another eight this year.

“We’re recruiting more new customers using social and digital marketing channels, along with increasing our number of repeat bookings.

“In the last four years, our top 40 customers in the UK have booked 460 cruises with us, spending more than £7.5m.

“Every month more than 50 per cent of our UK customers have booked with us before.

“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.

“Our mission is to become the world’s largest luxury cruise retail business.”

In the last 12 months, Panache’s workforce has grown from a team of 67 to 76 across the UK and US.

Cole, who launched Panache Cruises in 2020, hailed the opening of their US office in Orlando, Florida, as a ‘game-changer’.

He said: “I think it’s all about the approach that we’ve taken.

“We gave the US market a lot of respect. 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.

“We wanted to give our US colleagues more holidays than they were used to with 20 days, give them a 401(k) pension match, which we understand is very unusual for a startup 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 admitted there was initial scepticism among the US staff.

He said: “They asked: ‘Why would you want to do that?’ It took us several months to get them onside and gain their trust.”

Cole also revealed he’d made a deliberate decision to visit the US office eight times since it opened.

 “We want them to feel they are part of Panache Cruises,” he said. “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 that we’re all together.

“Our star of the week covers the UK and the US. We want everybody to feel they’re part of a global organisation.”

Cole also highlighted the success of their new brand called ‘Panache Expeditions’ for customers wanting to head to more remote destinations including Alaska, Antarctica, the Arctic and the Galapagos Islands.

Earlier this year Panache Cruises was included in the prestigious Sunday Times 100 and the #FEBEGrowth100 lists.

In June, a team from Panache Cruises climbed Mount  Kilimanjaro in aid of Reuben’s Retreat and have raised over £70k for the worthy cause.