Martin MacKinnon will join as sales director from early April. He has held a number of senior commercial leadership roles at Diageo and Kimberly Clark. He will join the line’s UK and Ireland senior leadership team and report to associate vice-president and managing director for UK and Ireland, Ben Bouldin.

MacKinnon’s appointment takes the sales team to its “full complement”. He replaces Stuart Byron, who has held the role of interim sales director since mid-2018, when Amanda Darrington left. Royal said the move would enable Byron to return to his role as insights director.

Donna Carley will join as head of key accounts at the beginning of April, from Hall & Woodhouse. She replaces Angela Hall, who leaves the company to relocate to New Zealand.

A further addition to the Royal sales team for 2019 is Lauren Mepham, previous retail manager at Tui.

Mepham has started her role at Royal Caribbean as regional sales manager for London South & the Channel Islands. At Tui she was also regional cruise business development manager.

She replaces Harriet Fallon who has been promoted to key accounts manager for Scotland and the North East.

Bouldin said: “We were intent on carrying out a thorough search for the role of sales director, and in the end we screened over 600 candidates.

“In Martin I believe we’ve found a very credible individual with the passion for sales that this business demands.

“Similarly, Donna has the breadth of experience and the ambition and drive to equip her very well in the role of head of key accounts.”