Spotlight

Potter Webster: Celebrating 70 Years

Customers and suppliers turned up in droves last month to support the 70th anniversary and open house of Portland, Ore.-based Potter Webster Company. The one-day event attracted just more than 400 customers and nearly 60 vendors participated with booth exhibits and donating door prizes.

While the event was just a day, considerably more time was spent in its organization and execution.

“I started this eight months ago,” says Vicki Webster, the company’s marketing manager. She notes the event involved employees from all three of the company’s locations. In addition to the Portland store, Potter Webster operates facilities in Longview, Wash., and the newly acquired McKay Truck and RV Center in Albany, Ore.

Webster notes that the company promoted the event through advertising and other means, resulting in participation of some suppliers that were not even vendors of the company.

“We have really good participation with the vendors because they know we do an event right,” says Webster. “So they’re always impressed with how we get people in and this year we worked to get management in the door.”

Potter Webster Company first opened its doors in 1940. It was the joint venture of Orin Potter and brothers J. R. and Walter Webster. J.R.'s son, Dennis Webster, is the company's president, a position he assumed in 1986.

One of the ways the company used to attract management-level customers was by incorporating more issue-driven training sessions into its lineup of technical-oriented training. There were 11 training classes in all held throughout the day, mostly conducted by vendor volunteers. The topics geared toward management were: CSA 2010 (Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010), diesel exhaust fluid and urea use with 2010 emissions regulations, issues with coolant and the new NHTSA braking regulations.

General Manager Randy Luthe says the company held a similar event in 2006 that was smaller in scope, but provided a valuable lesson the company addressed this year.

“In 2006 we had a similar event…and our only real problem had been parking,” says Luthe. “We’ve really tried to address it this year. So we have parking everywhere, we have all of our neighbors involved.” n

The company’s current headquarters opened in 2000 and consolidated four area locations. The 51,000 square-foot facility employs nearly 50 people.

Potter Webster Company has more than 85,000 parts in stock with over 120 different product lines. The business remained open during the open house, including its state-of-the-art showroom.