It might have been a year of political and economic turbulence – Brexit, the plummeting pound and government instability to name just a few of 2017’s challenges – but Travel Counsellors’ chief executive is smiling.

This is in part because it’s the day before the company’s annual conference, where more than 1,700 members will gather to hear inspirational stories as well as an update on the business.

But it’s also because said business update has some rather impressive figures – a £70 million growth in sales to £540 million (in total transaction value) and an annual growth of 15% for the last 15 years, to be exact.

And Steve Byrne has no plans to rest on his laurels.

“We expect that rate of growth to continue, if not accelerate, over the next three to five years,” he says frankly.

“The broad expectation is that we’ll double the size of the company in the same time frame.”

This growth will occur in a number of ways, with the business having increased its spend on “support”, much of which is directed at infrastructure “to enable everyone in the business to grow at an even faster rate than before”.