Few employees can boast 40 years with a company, but for Hastings Deering’s Grant Samson it is all in a day’s work.
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Last year the Mount Isa branch chalked up its 40 year anniversary but few employees have gone the same distance as Grant – metaphorically and physically with the local Cat man travelling over 75,000kms a year to meet with customers.
Starting with the parts inventory team at Hastings Deering Brisbane in 1978, Grant moved to Rockhampton and then Cairns, in warehouse and parts interpreter roles, with a stint in Bougainville, PNG as part supervisor then back to Cairns, before finding his way to the Isa in 1990.
“My story is pretty much like many of the people you meet out here,” Grant said.
“I thought I would come for about three or four years and that was 28 years ago”.
Grant said over that time he has got to know so many people and most of them are like family.
“My bread and butter have always been the local government sector – whether that was dealing with guys in the workshop to mayors and CEOs of the councils they deal with,” he said.
“It’s always been about relationships, about finding common ground.”
Samson’s job takes him to some of the state’s most remote communities – from Birdsville to the Gulf.
The size of the territory doesn’t daunt him and Hastings Deering brass reckon if they didn’t employ Samson, he’d find some other way to be a part of these communities.
Managing Director Dean Mehmet said Samson’s contact book reads like a who’s who of the outback for construction and pastoral industries.
“In the past 28 years Grant has covered over 2.5 million kilometres and has delivered a mind blowing 1140 machines in the area,” Mr Mehmet said.
“He holds an incredible relationship with our local government base. This really is a tremendous milestone for a really inspiring character.
“He is best known in the area for not only delivering machines, but ringing up in advance to see if those remote customers need any supplies from town. It is nothing for him to add fresh bread and milk to the manifest along with a shining new Cat machine.”
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