Page 207 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

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AGRICULTURE
TRACING PETERSON’S HISTORY IN AG
Peterson’s history in the agriculture market has been a bit bumpy. One thing we’ve learned through the years is that farmers are a distinct breed of customer with their own set of challenges, rules, and demands. And they won’t play second fiddle to anyone. “Ag customers will not tolerate a construction
equipment company that’s only halfway in the ag business because they know where the priority will go,” said Randy Grimes, general manager of Peterson’s Ag Division, back in 2015. “Farmers have a window of harvest, and when that product is ready, it has to be harvested now. There is no room for downtime. They need the same sense of urgency that the construction market gets. They want an ag business to serve the ag industry. And they can smell the difference a mile away.”
Peterson’s history within the ag market goes back to its founding days in the mid-1930s when Howard Pe- terson sold far more farm tractors than construction equipment. At the time, his five-county territory hugged the San Francisco bay, carpeted in farmland. Peterson Tractor & Equipment Co. had two stores, Brentwood and Half Moon Bay, dedicated solely to agriculture, with a full line of John Deere and allied farm products. Even the headquarters showroom in Hayward displayed mostly farm equipment. But then World War II came and went, and everything changed. The SF Bay Area started hopping with energy and new ideas, and that brought a tremendous surge of industrial growth to Northern California. Howard Peterson took notice. His own background was steeped in construction, having spent his youth working for R.G. LeTourneau, the grandfather of the modern-day scraper. So when construction fever hit San Francisco, Howard was quick to adapt his company to the new demands. That decision cemented Peterson as the go-to Caterpillar dealer for all the large infrastructure projects in Northern California during the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. And it made perfect sense, since most of the big contractors were based in the Bay Area—right in Peterson’s front yard.
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