Page 80 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

the business, with two stores, two backhoes, and a smattering of small equipment, Smith called DeSilva-Gates to see what the market was short on. “If you can get skip loaders, we’ll rent them from you,” they told him. A week later, Cresco had ten skip loaders out on rent to DeSilva-Gates. Within three years, Cresco was the largest owner of Massey-Ferguson skip loaders in North Amer- ica. “There was a demand that nobody else was meeting, so we stepped up and filled the need,” says Smith. “Skip loaders became a hot market and a big part of our business. It got us onto a lot of jobsites. And the only reason I bought them was because of DeSilva-Gates.”
CRESCO GROWS ITS BRAND
Cresco continues to grow by pursuing both tradi- tional and non-traditional markets. In 2000, they
launched Cresco Production Express, an enter- tainment-based outlet in South San Francisco. In 2002, they acquired their first two Cresco Xpress homeowner retail outlets in South San Francisco and Burlingame. And in 2003, they launched Cres- co Facility Services to provide specialty equipment for ongoing maintenance and repairs of facilities and campuses. “Customer demand has led to 90 percent of the decisions we make as a company,” says Smith, “decisions on whether to take a risk or not.”The goal for each expansion is to bring Cres- co’s level of service to a broader range of markets, with specific assets to match those needs.
One of the more exciting moves was the launch of Cresco Production Express in 2000, geared toward concerts, movies, festivals, and special events. “We landed the second Matrix movie our first year, which really put us on the map,” says Smith. “We were already known in the construction market, but doing The Matrix was a whole new venture.”
One day, Smith was out on a roadway set built at an abandoned airstrip at the Alameda Naval Air Station. During filming, bullets pumped through the air, spewing spent shell casings out onto the pavement like liquid metal. “They couldn’t figure out how to clean up all the casings every night and be ready for the next day’s shoot. We suggested buying a Tenant 66-inch sweeper for them to rent
Top, counter-clockwise: Peterson’s first stand-alone, Cat-branded rental store in Oregon (Springfield/Eugene area) in 2006; Springfield crew 2006; Duane Doyle Jr. & Rich Bolen
78 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG