For clients
One call.Three sectors, covered.
Your drivers, your production floor and your maintenance team are one supply chain. We staff it as one — with a guarantee we put in writing, run by the people whose names are on the door.
Why hire through Stoa
Three reasons, none of them a slogan.
Three sectors, one supply chain
Goods in, production, maintenance, goods out — most sites run all four, then staff them through three different agencies. We run Transport & Logistics, Industrial and Engineering from one desk, so cover never falls into the gap between suppliers.
The 4-hour protection window
If a placement doesn’t work out in the first four hours, you don’t pay for them. It’s not a gesture — it’s an incentive we imposed on ourselves, because a guarantee that costs us money is the only kind that changes behaviour.
Founder-led, on purpose
Twenty-five years of combined recruitment experience, and both founders still on the desk. When something goes wrong at 6am, the person who answers can fix it — because their name is on the door and on your terms of business.
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Every agency says it stands behind its placements. Here’s ours, in writing, with a number on it.
Our guarantee
If it’s wrong, you don’t pay.
It exists because it changes our behaviour, not yours: when a bad send costs us, we don’t make speculative ones.
Sectors for clients
One supply chain, staffed end to end.
Goods arrive, get made, get maintained, get moved. When one desk sees all three, cover doesn’t fall between agencies.
Doric
Transport & Logistics
Drivers and transport-office staff for fleets, RDCs and last-mile operations — tacho-clean, licence-checked, briefed on your site before they arrive.
- HGV Class 1 & 2
- 7.5 tonne
- Van drivers
- Transport planners
- Warehouse teams
Ionic
Industrial
Production operatives, pickers and FLT drivers for factories and fulfilment — including full shift crews for seasonal ramps, on any pattern you run.
- Production ops
- Pick & pack
- FLT (all tickets)
- Line leads
- Multi-shift crews
Corinthian
Engineering
Time-served welders, machinists and maintenance engineers — trade-tested before they’re shortlisted, for contract cover or permanent hires.
- MIG / TIG welders
- Maintenance engineers
- CNC setters
- Fabricators
- Quality inspectors
Two ways to hire. Both live, both ours.
Not one core service and one aspiration — temporary and permanent run as equal desks, with the same consultants and the same standard.
Temporary staffing
Cover that turns up.
Shift cover, seasonal ramps, ongoing contracts. Vetted, briefed and site-ready — with the 4-hour protection window on every placement.
- Same-day and next-day cover across all three sectors
- Licences, right to work and references checked before arrival
- One consultant owns your account — nights and weekends included
- Genuine temp-to-perm routes, agreed up front
Permanent recruitment
Hires that stay.
Engineers, planners, supervisors and skilled trades — shortlisted by people who’ve filled these exact roles for twenty-five years combined.
- A shortlist of three, not a folder of thirty
- Every candidate interviewed by us before you see them
- Salary benchmarking from live placements, not surveys
- Rebate terms in plain English, agreed before we start
Request a callback · submit a vacancy
Tell us what you need. We’ll ring you back.
This goes straight onto a consultant’s desk — not a contact inbox someone checks on Fridays.
Prefer to talk?
The office is open Monday to Friday, 07:30 – 17:30. Walk in, or write to us and a person answers.
Client resources
Reading for hiring managers.
Clients
1 min read
Four hours: why we put a limit on our own invoice
The thinking behind the protection window, and what happens in practice when a placement doesn’t work out.
Clients
1 min read
Agency workers and your audit trail: what to ask for
Right-to-work, licence checks and the paperwork a decent agency should hand over without being chased.
Milestone
1 min read
The new Stoa website goes live
Live job feed, candidate registration and the My Stoa portal on the way — the porch, now open online.
Case studies & client results
Empty on purpose.
We’re a new agency and we won’t invent proof. Case studies appear here when real clients give us permission to publish real numbers — named, dated and checkable. If a website full of anonymous “leading logistics firms” would have convinced you, we’d rather lose that comparison.
Client questions
Before you brief us.
The questions every new client asks, answered the way we’d answer on the phone.
How fast can you actually get someone to site?
For temporary roles in our patch: same day is sometimes possible, next day is normal, and we’ll tell you which on the first call. What we won’t do is promise same-day and send whoever answers the phone — that’s what the 4-hour window exists to prevent.
How does the 4-hour protection window work in practice?
If a worker we place leaves site or is sent home for poor performance or attitude within their first four hours, you call your consultant and those hours come off the invoice. No claim form, no dispute process. It applies to every temporary placement, every time, and it’s written into our terms.
What are your rates and margins?
Quoted up front, in writing, before you commit — pay rate, our margin and your charge rate as separate lines. No blended numbers, and no admin fees appearing on invoice three. Permanent fees and rebate terms work the same way: agreed in plain English before we start.
What checks do you run before someone arrives?
Right to work, two checkable references, and role-specific checks: licence and CPC for drivers, in-date FLT tickets (RTITB, ITSSAR or AITT), codings for welders, qualifications for engineers. Compliance packs are available for your audits — we’re REC members and run to their standard.
Can you cover more than one of our sites or sectors?
That’s the point of running three desks. One account, one consultant who owns it, covering your transport office, your production floor and your maintenance team. Multi-site accounts get one number to ring, not a different agency contact per postcode.
Who will we actually be dealing with?
One of the two people who own the business, or a consultant they directly manage — and your account doesn’t get handed down the desk once it stops being new. Founder-led is our structure, not a marketing line.
Areas we cover
Worked from Stoke. Covered in person.
HQ · Real office
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
Coverage
Bradford
West Yorkshire
Coverage
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
Coverage
Manchester
Greater Manchester
Coverage
Warrington
Cheshire
Sites in and around these areas are covered by consultants who know them — one account, one number, wherever your sites sit across the patch.