Eddie Stobart’s truck has got our name on it!

Directors of Leeds-based Twenty-Four Seven Industrial Recruitment, Jeremy and Sarah Northern, are delighted that one of Eddie Stobart’s trucks has been named after their daughters, Ella, 9, and Emily, 6.

Eddie Stobart has been a client of Twenty-Four Seven Industrial Recruitment since 2000. It supplies the company with HGV drivers.

Mr Northern said: “We are of course delighted that a local, independent business is held in such high regard by such a well-known, national company.”

Every vehicle in Eddie Stobart’s fleet is personalised with a female name, said Mr Northern, adding: “During our dealings with Eddie Stobart this came to light and the operations manager who was in charge at that time, Kev Hopkins, very kindly offered to submit the names of our daughters Ella and Emily.

“Eddie Stobart added over 100 trucks to their national fleet in September and we were lucky enough to have ‘our’ truck in this batch.”

Yesterday, haulier Stobart said disruption as stores launched promotions to offset the tough economic conditions had held back profits over the past six months. The group, which owns Eddie Stobart, said promotions by shop chains to boost sales had caused volumes to fluctuate, which created problems in planning loads.

The group, which handles distribution for blue chips such as Tesco, said attempts to improve its reaction times to potential problems had pushed profits back in line with its earlier expectations.

Stobart said pre-tax profits in the six months to August 31 fell by five per cent to £14.7m, though revenues jumped by 15 per cent to £281.1m. Chief executive Andrew Tinkler said trading conditions were tough, but the outlook for the year was broadly unchanged.