People said I was mad to start a travel agent in Covid. They were wrong

Panache Cruises, based in Chorley, Lancashire, has grown rapidly. Turnover reached £34.9 million in the year to May 2025, supported by the opening of an office in Orlando, Florida. And it is on track to surpass £50 million in sales in its current financial year, including more than $18 million (£13 million) from the US, when it expects pre-tax profits of between £1.2 million and £1.5 million.

Customers typically spend £10,000 for a standard ocean cruise, rising to £20,000-plus for an expedition cruise that might travel to Antarctica or the Galapagos Island — two destinations that Cole still hopes to visit himself. He has been on more than 100 cruise ships in his lifetime.

Born in Bolton and raised in Astley Village in Chorley, Cole is an only child. His parents, Ron and Cath, both worked in education, and his mother later received an OBE for services to the sector. His own education was close to home at Parklands High School and Runshaw College, and Cole then completed an MBA at the University of Central Lancashire, now Lancashire University, where he remains an honorary fellow.

He said he “fell into travel” after applying for a trainee accountant role in the industry but being interviewed instead for a commercial executive position after he was given the wrong interview date.

Cole accepted the offer and joined the Lancashire-based Airtours in 1997. “When I was there, nobody wanted to work in the cruise team, so I volunteered,” he said. “I’ve never looked back.” Over the next decade, he rose through the ranks to a senior role at Airtours and then its successor, MyTravel.

And all the while, in a sign of his own entrepreneurial ambitions, he had been keeping tabs on Sir Richard Branson’s business adventures from afar. In 2008, Cole co-founded Cruise118, a business that grew into one of the UK’s leading cruise retailers and spawned sister brands including Six Star Cruises and River Voyages. There, he helped sell more than £1 billion worth of cruise holidays, but, with the financial crisis on the horizon, it was far from plain sailing at first.

Cole with Sir Richard Branson in October off the tycoon’s Necker Island in the Caribbean

PANACHE CRUISES

“We sold our first cruise ten weeks before Lehman Brothers went under,” he said. “We went through a hell of a time for about three years after that.” Cole described the years that followed the 2008 crisis as “horrendous” but said getting through it has given him the confidence to face issues head-on and the determination to stick to a plan when things get tough.

By the time he sold his final shareholding in 2018, to the American company World Travel Holdings, Cruise118 was turning over £100 million and employed more than 200 people.

Cole stepped away from travel while serving a two-year non-compete clause. During that time, he focused on property development and, with his wife Heather, renovated an old vicarage where they still live with their three children.

The lightbulb moment for Panache Cruises came while he was out of the industry, when, amid a huge transfer of wealth from baby boomers to the next generation, he spotted an opportunity to launch a high-end cruise retailer. “I could see it was going to grow exponentially during the 2020s, and that has absolutely been the case,” Cole said, adding that he believes the growth will continue into the 2030s. “The cruise lines are really keen, especially at the luxury end, to build more ships.”

Cole invested more than £1 million in Panache Cruises, funded through the sale of Cruise118 alongside backing from friends and family and a loan from Rosebud, part of Lancashire county council’s development fund. More recently, the business refinanced with a £2.75 million loan from HSBC to help fund a bespoke in-house TV studio and the recruitment of senior staff.

Initially launched as a source of advice and information for potential customers as the pandemic took hold, in just two months the business had gathered a database of more than 12,000 people who were interested in cruises before it had sold a single package.

The second advantage of launching during Covid was that Panache Cruises was able to recruit experienced specialists quickly, as competitors furloughed or laid-off staff. Cole hand-picked a team of what the company calls “cruise connoisseurs”, many of whom remain with the business today. Customers are assigned a dedicated connoisseur who gets to know their needs and guides them through every stage of the booking.

Cole’s company has come through a stormy start to recruit many more staff

PANACHE CRUISES

The company started with just six staff working out of Cole’s garage; it now employs just over 100 people across the UK and the US. The founder and his family own 80 per cent of the business.

• Lost at sea: how coronavirus has crippled the cruise industry

However, the main downside of launching during the pandemic was the uncertainty; nobody knew how long the lockdowns would last. But with more than 20 years in the industry behind him, Cole knew all the big luxury cruise lines and, once they had overcome their initial scepticism, they were “exceptionally supportive” when he pitched his service to them.

As the pandemic dragged on longer than anticipated, Panache Cruises had to knuckle down and keep costs tight to survive. Then, as the business grew, Cole said it was a “constant tightrope of not growing too quickly or too slowly and managing cashflow”. It has worked hard to lay down solid foundations focused on building long-term relationships with its employees, customers and cruise line partners.

Panache Cruises now has plans to expand into Canada and Australia, but Cole insists he will continue to give customers his contact details. “It’s fantastic to be that close to customers and get some real feedback on what they genuinely think,” he said.