Luxury cruise retailer Panache Cruises has appointed Juliana Nasmith to head up its new Australian operation.
The tech-enabled company is preparing to launch in Australia in May and is now actively searching for an office in Sydney and recruiting a team of up to 10 staff.
Experienced Juliana Nasmith, who has previously worked for Luxury Escapes and Helloworld Travel during a 25+ year career in the travel industry, has started as聽head of sales and operations in Australia.
James Cole, founder and CEO of Panache Cruises, said the company was investing a six figure sum in the Australian launch and聽said recruiting Nasmith聽was 鈥榩ivotal鈥�.
He said: 鈥淭he Australian market is very different to the UK because of the time difference.
鈥淚t was absolutely crucial that we recruited someone who was going to lead the business in Australia and we were delighted to recruit somebody of the stature of Juliana.
鈥淪he鈥檚 extremely enthusiastic, has outstanding experience and has the get-up-and-go to really drive us forward.
鈥淲hen we decided to launch in Australia the head of sales and operations was always going to be the single most important piece of recruitment that we did.鈥�
Nasmith said: 鈥淚鈥檓 super excited. I don鈥檛 know of any other business that operates in Australia and gives the level of service to their clients as Panache Cruises.
鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to starting something completely new in Australia but with the support of an established and respected brand like Panache Cruises.
鈥淭he luxury cruise market in Australia is growing quickly and it鈥檚 a great opportunity for Panache Cruises.
鈥淲e鈥檙e currently looking for an office in North Sydney as we recruit a team of up to 10 staff. We plan to be selling cruises in May.鈥�
The launch in Australia comes after Panache Cruises agreed聽a 拢2.75m refinance package with HSBC UK last year.
The North West-based company, which was founded in 2020 and employs a team of over 100, also has plans to expand into Canada.
In 2024, Panache opened a US office, which employs 13 people and exceeded $15m turnover in the last 12 months.