When now major-league North Island logtruck company Aztec started up, there were some in the industry who didn’t give it much hope.

The thing is, the three drivers who created Aztec Forestry Transport Developments were not exactly in a big way back in 1997: Between them, Peter Phillips, Ken Angus and Steve Segetin owned just four trucks.

They were modest owner-operators….rather than bigtime operators.

But – apparently to the annoyance of others in the industry – these guys together had something that timber manufacturing supplier (and then forest owner) Carter Holt Harvey liked…

And so it made the three-way partnership one of an exclusive group – given the status of one of just a dozen or so log transport “key suppliers.” 

Says Peter Phillips of that milestone (which made the formation of Aztec possible): “I think from the bigger players, there was resentment. They didn’t think three little owner-operators should get that opportunity. 

“A certain operator was heard to say we’d be like a broken marriage – and, well, we wouldn’t last five minutes!”

Gallery