The new premises, in the Galleries shopping centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, will take the company’s network to 23 stores across the north of England.

While Dawson & Sanderson has remodelled and moved the location of numerous stores in the past two years, its last new opening was in Durham, three years ago.

The Washington store, which is on track to open by the first week of September, will have a mixture of eight full-time and part-time staff working across travel and foreign exchange.

Managing director Chris Harrison said the business was undergoing “controlled expansion”, and would “consider each opportunity on its merits”. “There is no specific growth strategy,” he added.

Asked whether he had plans to match the large networks of other agency chains, Harrison said: “We are quite insular. We prefer to focus on our own business and make the decisions which are right for our customers.”

Harrison admitted the business was “slightly behind on last year”, but said he was “more than happy” with the firm’s year-end financial results, which will be released in the next few weeks.

“It has been a very tough trading year, especially in the last few months with Brexit,” he said. “Our big focus at this time of year is the following summer, getting bookings in early.”

Meanwhile, Harrison said Dawson & Sanderson’s decision to scrap credit card fees at the beginning of the year had been “very well received” and was highlighted across its advertising. The agency argued at the time that credit card surcharges were “unethical” and “penalised many of its customers”.

The firm advertises through a mixture of direct mail and email marketing, as well as campaigns in the regional press.

Dawson & Sanderson has recently begun using authenticated reviews platform Feefo across its network, and claims to have maintained a 99% satisfaction score so far.