Page 209 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Top left, clockwise: Willows store announcement in March 1983; Aerial view of Peterson’s Willows store; Duane Doyle Jr & Matt Scarcella with strawberry growers Rocha Farms in 2008—in front of tractor & below; Randy Grimes/ GM for Peterson Ag at Oregon Ag Show in 2018; Peterson Ag tech in the field
general manager of the Ag Division in 2012, it had grown tenfold. Right man. Right time. Right place. And with a long-term vision. But in 2003— when Peterson first moved into Oregon—it was quickly evident that the ag community was not being served. “Papé [the former southern Oregon Cat dealer] had toyed with it for five years, then pulled out,” says Grimes. “The customers were not happy. I know because I was working for John Deere at the time and took in on trade just about every ag tractor that had a Cat logo on it. Nobody wanted them anymore because there was no dealer support.”
At Peterson, Grimes worked hard to woo back those customers. “We walked away from a lot of customers in that era,” says Grimes, of both Or- egon and California. “This generation knows be- cause they heard it from their parents. So now we’re trying to heal and re-establish those relationships.”
Since then, Grimes and his team have been busy building relationships, one farmer at a time. It’s about more than a sale or a piece of equipment.
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