Luxury cruise retailer Panache Cruises has stepped in to hire eight staff from dnata Travel Group after they announced plans to close their Travel Republic and Netflights consumer brands.
The new recruits have more than 150 years’ experience between them in the travel industry and join the Chorley-based company after a period of record growth.
The new additions are head of sales Luke Roberts; partnerships manager John Poulton; senior graphic designer Darren Woodcock; head of TV and content Amanda Parker; content and website manager Vicky McNeil; partnerships manager Ryan Norman; CRM manager Wayne Pashley; and partnerships executive Lauren Joyner.
In a separate move, Sarah Allen has joined from Morson Group as people and culture director and Wendi Hardy is the new events and customer loyalty manager after nine years at Scenic and Emerald Cruises.
James Cole, founder and CEO of Panache Cruises, said the recruitment drive reflected a ‘significant six figure investment’ but would enable them to bring forward their international expansion plans.
Cole said: “The travel industry is very close knit and dnata Travel Group is only based a few miles away in Leyland so we quickly became aware of their plans to close Travel Republic and Netflights.
“My first thought was for the people who may lose their jobs.
“Then I realised there were going to be some good people looking for roles so I made contact to see how we could help and it snowballed from there.
“We weren’t looking to hire. We’d done all our recruitment for the financial year 2025/26 to hit our current business plan.
“However, we reached out, organised an open day and here we are.
“These are really good people with lots of experience both in the roles that they do but also in travel and they’re based near to Panache’s head office in Chorley.
“These opportunities aren’t going to come up very often. We’re a growing business and this will enable us to bring forward our international expansion plans.
“I’m also delighted to be able to welcome Sarah Allen as people and culture director and Wendi Hardy as the new events and customer loyalty manager.
“We’ve got ambitious plans to grow our sales in the US and establish a presence in both Australia and Canada. These 10 new hires will speed up that process.”
The news comes after Panache agreed a £2.75m refinance package with HSBC UK.
Panache Cruises has grown turnover by 64 per cent to £43m in the last 12 months – and is on track to top £50m in revenue by the end of their financial year in May 2026.