Corporate Overview

Welcome to Peterson! When Howard Peterson founded our company in 1936, he sold Cat tractors to customers in five counties in Northern California. Today—more than eighty years later!—we’ve grown to become the authorized dealer to customers across more than 100,000 square miles of California, Oregon, and Washington, and we’ve expanded our product line to include International trucks, technology and software from Trimble, and other major manufacturers!

Since our founding, Peterson’s territory has grown as the result of numerous strategic acquisitions, first in California and later in Oregon and Washington. In fact, Peterson has purchased, acquired, or been awarded the sales territory of ten other Cat dealers in our company's history—most recently Pape Cat (in southern Oregon) and the Halton Company (in northern Oregon and southwest Washington). And we haven't just been expanding our Caterpillar sales and service territory: Peterson recently purchased the Bay Area and North Coast International trucks territory formerly served by Bayshore International and the Willamette Valley and Portland metro territory formerly served by Brattain International!

At Peterson, our purpose is to partner with our customers to build a better future. Because we are so proud of these partnerships, we’ve made our customers’ needs the focus of our Vision statement: “We will be our customers’ first choice.”

Toward that end, we offer a huge array of products and services from more than forty locations in three states, organized into the following companies:

  • Peterson Cat provides earthmoving, paving and forestry gear from Caterpillar and other leading manufacturers. We provide parts, service, and rental to customers in over 100,000 square miles of territory from San Martin, California to Longview, Washington.
  • Peterson Power Systems provides sales, rental, service, and installation of power generation, power quality, temperature control, and compressed air equipment throughout California, Oregon, and Washington. It also provides sales, service and installation for Cat marine engines.
  • Cresco – The Cat Rental Store in California and Peterson – The Cat Rental Store in Oregon and Washington provide equipment rental to contractors and homeowners for projects as diverse as remodeling, major construction, and movie and concert production.
  • Peterson Technology Group (PTG) provides high-tech equipment and software to customers in the construction and freight industries through SITECH, our Trimble GPS and equipment guidance business, and BuildingPoint Pacific, the authorized West Coast distributor of the Trimble Buildings portfolio and part of the first fully dedicated Trimble network offering building construction technology solutions across the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle.
  • Peterson Trucks is the authorized International Trucks dealer and Idealease truck leasing, rental, and maintenance provider to customers in the Bay Area, northern California coast, Willamette Valley, and the Portland metro region. We offer bumper-to-bumper service and parts for all makes and models of on-highway trucks.