A downturn in farming in the mid-1980s saw him sell out of the business to concentrate on his Twyford orchard.
In 1990 he bought a truck to cart his own fruit and asked local growers, the Crasborn brothers, if they wanted any fruit moved.
They offered him a partnership instead.
"They were really just a silent partner but they had the work," he said.
"We started with the one truck that I had and we slowly built it up."
At first he operated from Crasborn's yard but now has a site 500m west on Omahu Rd.
Despite the partnership working well he offered to buy them out, "but they stuck to their guns".
"They came to me a few years ago, wanting to know if I would buy their share out, which I jumped at. They said they would still give me all of their work. Still do to this day."
Crasborn Group managing director Eddie Crasborn said it was a very good relationship but the money was needed for a joint venture with Freshmax to buy Opey Farms. On Thursday Crasborn Group and Freshmax announced a merger to form the country's third-biggest apple exporter.
Through John Agnew's brother Willie's trucking company, Agnew Transport Services, Everfresh picked up major client JM Bostock.
"Getting Bostock on board really picked the business up," Mr Agnew said.
Currently Everfresh owns 15 trucks and rents more than that number during the height of the season.
Last season "wasn't the easiest" due to a jammed Napier Port, Mr Agnew said.
Delays meant trucks were able to make about four trips a day instead of the usual six.
Some shipments missed their boat. Market opportunities were lost, because of the early season, and reputations overseas tarnished.
Exporters asked Everfresh to put on extra trucks "but that didn't do any good, it just queued up more".
At the time the port blamed a high number of empty containers as a reason for the delays.
He was in "pretty serious meetings" over the last few months with the port. They were looking at extending hours, increasing equipment and labour, he said.
This season empty containers will be picked up from the port's new container park in Pandora.
"Hopefully that will all help."
Keeping good staff was the key ingredient to success. He said a "good driver" minimised damage, was courteous on the road, and had low fuel consumption.
"Fuel consumption is all about engine revs. The torque of some engines might be at 1500 to 1700 rpm and if you have it screaming up to 2500 you are just burning fuel and you're not going to get there much faster."
The installation of the EROAD monitoring system in the fleet had made management easier, he said.
"It eliminates fines from drivers not telling you that you are running out of road user. It is all on GPS so we know where the trucks are at any one time ... we have a lot more control."
Considerable effort had gone into sourcing off-season work for June to September. It had good contracts carting for businesses such as for composters Bio Rich, delivering the finished product to growers and picking up bark sweepings from logs sent from Napier Port.
He has his eye on more fertiliser work, to help fill in the off-season, but has no interest in farm-vehicle contracting to grow the business.
"We'll stick to the knitting and do the trucking properly."
