Wonderluxe Travel has unveiled plans to take on self-employed agents as part of an affiliate programme to grow its brand presence in the market.

The homeworking agency, which is in the process of moving into offices in Derby and plans to open its first high-street shop in spring 2023, hopes to have five affiliates working under its brand by the end of the year.

The agents would be self-employed but would be able to access Wonderluxe’s list of suppliers, back office system, and marketing services, and be able to work from home or from the company’s offices. There is no joining fee but agents would pay a monthly fee and commission earnings would be split with Wonderluxe.

Owner and director Sheena Sumner, who started the business in 2019, said: “I personally feel like the time is right to look at opening our doors up to independent travel consultants who are self-employed to come and join us under the Wonderluxe umbrella.”

She added: “Ideally we’d like full-time consultants from a luxury travel sales background so they can come in and hit the ground running, but that’s not essential.

“We are not looking to poach any one and these might be people who may be looking to go it alone or who have been made redundant or left the sector and want to come back.”

Although the affiliate agents would be expected to generate their own sales leads, they would also be able to take overflow calls from the Wonderluxe sales team, said Sumner, who said more could be recruited in future.

The agency revamped its website and logo earlier this year and had originally planned to open a high-street shop in 2021. This was then postponed until 2022 and is now expected to happen in 2023.

Sumner added: “In the interim we have acquired some office space on one of the industrial estates but in terms of investment we will look for the right location, where we can stay for at least ten years.”