Essential Staffing announced it acquired New Start Personnel of Barrie, Ontario, a company that has supplied drivers, skilled trades and office staff to clients throughout Simcoe County in southern Ontario. New Start has operated since 2005. The deal takes effect Sunday.

The acquisition is part of the growth strategy at Essential Staffing and sister company Revolution Staffing. Essential Staffing was founded in 2017 and focuses on direct hire/permanent placement and skilled trades in the light industrial market. Revolution Staffing was founded in 2005 by Dave MacDonald and provides truck drivers to transportation companies. Both Essential and Revolution serve clients from offices in Brampton, Cambridge and Barrie, Ontario.

“New Start Personnel is going to give us an opportunity to tap into the new driver market to help our clients source the best recent graduates from the best driving schools in Ontario, while doing what we have always done in the professional driver market matching employees’ wants and desires with employers’ needs,” MacDonald said. “For Essential Staffing, this opportunity opens up relationships in the light industrial market to support many clients and candidates in the Barrie area.”

New Start’s owner, Jacques Maltais, will retire after 47 years in the transportation industry.

“As I interviewed potential partners to carry on the work I have started at New Start Personnel, I found Dave to be like-minded about how to treat our people and customers and appreciate his employee-first approach to the business,” Maltais said. “Knowing that my drivers and employees continue to have an advocate as an employer gave me a great sense of comfort as I transition out of this business that I have poured my life into over the last nearly 20 years.”