GRANDVIEW, MO — This year will mark 60 years in business for Peterson Manufacturing of Grandview, Mo. The company plans to celebrate the milestone with special events and customer promotions scheduled for this summer and fall.
Over the past six decades, Peterson has grown from a small, automotive aftermarket supplier of such items as safety lighting and tire pumps, to a $250 million, multi-faceted corporation, serving transportation-related industries around the world. Yet for all of its impressive growth, the family-owned company remains Grandview’s “quiet giant,” virtually unknown by millions who see and use Peterson products every day.
“We’re not exactly high profile,” said president and CEO Don Armacost, Jr., son of the Kansas City businessman who acquired the company from Wilbur Peterson and staked its future on a commitment to quality. “My father often said he didn’t want to be the biggest in the business, just the best. He always looked for ways to improve quality — better materials, better methods, better ideas. That philosophy has served us well, and we look forward to where it will take us in the years ahead.”
Today the company headquarters in a state-of-the-art, 450,000-square-foot facility housing everything from manufacturing and assembly to management, sales, engineering and warehousing. Many of the company’s 650 employees are second- and third-generation Peterson associates.
As an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, Peterson Manufacturing is the flagship of the Peterson Corporate Group, a family of 11 companies and more than 3,000 associates working in global, transportation-related industries.
As Peterson reflects on its 60 years of operation, Armacost said the company is not only proud of its success, but also enormously grateful for its dedicated people and loyal customers.
“A 60-year anniversary is a nice milestone,” said Armacost. “But we remember who got us here, and that’s what we’ll be celebrating most in 2005.”
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