Kirsty Reid has been named account manager after working for the line in its trade support department over the past 18 months.

Reid’s promotion takes Fred Olsen’s number of field-based account managers to four with the team led by Mathew Foxcroft.

Mike Evans, head of sales, said between July and September 2018 the line had seen a year-on-year increase in agent sales of 29%.

Evans described how Reid had joined due to her “love of cruising” and had impressed during her time at the line’s Ipswich headquarters helping agents.

“Since joining us Kirsty has really taken to her role in supporting agents and now getting out on the road and helping to grow our trade partners’ business as an account manager is a great opportunity for her and us,” he said.

Evans explained that Reid would look after “a mixture” of trade accounts – from high street retail agents to online and call centre agencies.

When asked if the line would look to grow its sales force further, Evans said he believed the team was “the right size that we want it to be at the moment” but said Fred Olsen did have an opportunity to bolster its trade support team.

“We are talking to and working with more and more agents each day and plenty that haven’t dealt with us before,” he said. “We are offering a real difference to other lines and the strength of our ex-UK cruising speaks for itself.”