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THE BIG INTERVIEW
By Ged Henderson
ON THE CREST OF A WAVE
With the world locked down and in the grip of a pandemic there was just one direction of travel for James Cole to take – launch a business offering luxury cruises.
Some four years later, sitting in the company’s impressive Chorley headquarters, Panache Cruises’ founder is buoyant and it is little wonder.
It was a brave move that has more than paid off. From those beginnings in uncertain times, the ultra-luxury cruise specialist has more than doubled its turnover to £20m in 2023, with a record breaking 12 months.
Over that period its number of bookings doubled to more than 2,000, with their average value surpassing the £10,000 mark.
It was also a year when it was named the fastest growing business in the north of England, expanding its workforce from 31 to 55 people. The aim is to reach 100 by 2026.
There have been also been major investments, including £1m in the smart new HQ at Strawberry Fields Digital Hub and an expansion of operations in the USA from a base in Austin, Texas.
They are all part of a journey James embarked on with a single destination of travel in mind: to become the world’s biggest seller of luxury cruises by 2030. On the way to that Panache is forecasting a turnover of £60m for its UK sales alone by 2027.
James is navigating the journey with all the expertise he has gathered over more than 25 years in the industry.
He has been the driving force behind some of the UK’s largest cruise brands and during his career, which began with travel business Airtours in Helmshore, he has retailed more than £1bn of cruise holidays.
Looking back at Panache Cruises’ birth, he says: “Some people thought I was mad to set
up the business during Covid, but for me it was the right time.
“A lot of people weren’t particularly happy with how they were treated by their employers. They were at home generally discontented and were looking for something else. So, we were able to find some really good people.
“Secondly there were a lot of frustrated cruise customers out there. Frustrated by how they were being dealt with in terms of customer service.
“We are here to help and we’ll speak to anyone who is interested in talking to us about cruise holidays. We’ll happily take your details and give you as much information as we can.
“During the pandemic we worked to keep people up to date with what was happening in the cruise sector. In just two months we built up a database of 12,000 people through these simple information-led messages – that gave us 12,000 potential customers before we’d
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