Fresh recruitment drive helps Panache post record £35m turnover
Luxury cruise retailer Panache Cruises has reported record turnover of £35m for the 12 months to the end of July 2025 following 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.
To cope with the increased demand the firm recently made a string of new hires, including cruise connoisseurs Lisa Buckley, Wendy Mulholland and Rob Ledsham, along with finance apprentice Amy Ainsworth.
Panache Cruises CEO James Cole 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, Panache’s top 40 customers in the UK have booked 460 cruises, spending more than £7.5m. Over the past 12 months, the company’s workforce has grown from 67 to 76 across the UK and US.
Panache recently celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of its US office, which has achieved sales of $10m (£7.3m). Cole, who launched Panache in 2020, hailed the opening of the brand’s Orlando branch as a “game-changer”.
“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,” he continued.
“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.”
Cole also praised the success of the firm’s new brand, Panache Expeditions, designed for customers wanting to head to more remote destinations including Alaska, Antarctica, the Arctic and the Galapagos Islands.
