Spear Travels has appointed Joan Jones as head of business development as it looks to grow its homeworking division.
The company made the announcement as it revealed it will be opening an 11th branch on the high-street later this month.
The decision to appoint Jones, who previously ran Haslemere Travel’s homeworking division, follows a “dramatic increase” in enquiries since it was rebranded as ‘Inspearational.expert’ last year.
There are currently 16 homeworkers, but it is hoped more agents will now be recruited.
Managing director Peter Cookson said: “The number of enquiries we have received has increased dramatically – so much so that it became obvious we would need someone 100% dedicated to homeworker recruitment and the day to day management of the division.
“With Joan on board, we are now looking to grow by appointing experience travel agents who wish to target high end, affluent travellers rather than simply processing standard package holidays on a day to day basis.
“Our homeworking strategy is to grow using a ‘quality over quantity’ approach and we see Joan as the perfect person to lead this.”
He admitted: “We are probably guilty of taking our eye off the ball recently with regards to our home based agents while we concentrated on our branch network expansion but with Joan now in place we can look ahead to continued growth across both distribution channels.”
The agency opened its 10th branch only recently, after acquiring Tickets Anywhere in Thame, Oxfordshire. Cookson added: “We hope to announce later this month the opening of our 11th branch and we remain keen to grow our branch network should the right opportunities present themselves to us.”