Page 147 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Together we do what we couldn’t do alone
Left to right: Empty Portland forestry shop; Same shop filled with Finning machines
Two weeks later, Duane Jr. got a call. Finning wanted to talk. “They were so focused on mining machines and rebuilding equipment that they couldn’t get their new deliveries out the door,” explains Duane Jr. He and Chris Harbeson, regional product support manager for Peterson at the time, put together a presentation. Their concept was simple: Cat would ship all Finning’s new machines directly to Peterson’s Portland location. Peterson would do all the pre-delivery and customization and ship the machines to Finning for final delivery. Finning liked the proposal and gave it a green light.
PHASE ONE: PETERSON-FINNING CONNECTION TURNS TO FORESTRY (2011–2016)
The first round of machines showed up in September 2011. By year-end, Peterson had pumped out over one hundred machines. “We helped them deliver 20 percent
more machines that year, and they were pretty happy,” says
Duane Jr. “At first, it was everything under the sun except
mining equipment. And all they wanted was regular new machine prep. Just vanilla prep.” But in 2012, after seeing how the partnership was going, Finning decided to focus their Peterson connection on forestry machines alone, given Peterson’s expertise in the forestry market. “Finning does a lot of custom stuff on their forestry machines,” says Duane Jr. “Like fifty-thousand-dollar custom cabs, the guarding, special brackets, and catwalks. It’s not vanilla at all.”
Rear-entry cab installation in shop
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