Page 17 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Peterson won the Papé territory because of the support and loyalty they have toward their customer base. Those first few months after the acquisition, Duane Sr. got on an airplane, pulled on his boots, and drove out to meet his new customers and see what he could do for them. And he did it over and over again because that’s what’s important to him.
– Gary LeVar, SF district manager, Caterpillar, 2000–04
won’t come around twice. Whether it’s convenient at the time or not can’t be a factor.”That mindset has characterized the tenures of each of Peterson’s three owners, making it one of the most territory-enriched dealerships in the Caterpillar network.
From the get-go, Peterson was different. When Howard Peterson launched his company in 1936,
there were twenty-seven Caterpillar dealers in Cal- ifornia alone. Most were small ag-and-industrial dealers with shops and parts departments to match.
But Peterson’s focus lay elsewhere. Howard had come
from a construction background. He knew what it
was like to be broken down in the dirt, chasing parts.
“As a mechanic and foreman, Howard had an awful
lot of experience and appreciation for what it took to be a contractor,” says Bill Doyle, Peterson owner and CEO from 1977 to 1995. “It gave him a leg up on the other dealers because he knew what customers wanted and why they wanted it. And he did his best to make sure
they got it.”
Peterson’s first growth spurt came in 1958 with the Trinity Dam project, a massive thirty-three million-cubic-yard dam near Weaverville, California. The local Cat dealer, Sierra Trac- tor, was struggling to keep up with the prod- uct support demands of a multimillion-dollar contract. After a year, the contractor went to Caterpillar requesting that Peterson take over. The territory switched hands from
Sierra Tractor to Peterson on July 1, 1958. The contractor, Guy F. Atkin- son, was happy. Caterpillar was satis- fied. Howard was thrilled.
“We were awarded territories because
we were very aggressive in taking care
of our customers,” says Bill Doyle, who watched every expansion Peterson took on—most from the driver’s seat as general manager (1967–77) and owner (1977–95). “Other dealers like Sierra Tractor, Zumwalt, and Berglund were small and didn’t want to invest the time or money it took to meet the
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