From Workshop to Boardroom: The Remarkable Career of Peter Davis
In his 43-years at Coates, Peter Davis rose from apprentice to executive leadership. Now semi-retired but still active in the industry, he looks back on a remarkable career in hire and shares why he’ll ‘bleed orange’ for life.
PETER DAVIS WAS A CURIOUS teenager who always loved fixing things.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing,” says Peter, “but I was very hands-on and loved helping dad around the home.”
He was initially at Coates on a work experience placement but was soon offered an apprenticeship. Working with a number of skilled tradespeople, it became a vibrant
training ground, instilling discipline and giving the young apprentice the opportunity to maintain and operate a broad range of equipment. The best job in the business
After finishing his apprenticeship, Peter and his wife moved to the Gold Coast where he joined the Nerang branch team. After a couple of years, they returned to Sydney where Peter joined the Alexandria branch, then the busiest in Australia.
Working in the branches proved pivotal, broadening Peter’s understanding of the hire business. “I saw how many moving parts go into making a good hire business,” he recalls.
“That’s when the penny dropped.” By 1994, Peter had moved into field service, a role he now describes as one of the best in his career. As a field service technician, he was on the road across NSW, supporting branches and customers in regional centres, major industrial projects and visiting remote sites, mines and farms.
He still believes field service is something every mechanic should experience. “It’s different to working in a workshop or a factory because you’re on your own, problem-solving and seeing how customers use the gear.”
Igniting a passion for maintenance and safetyAfter 16 years ‘on the tools’, Peter took on his first management role in a construction hoist business (Conrent) acquired by Coates. Despite not knowing much about hoists or managing people, he jumped in and learnt as much and as fast as he could.
He was soon promoted to National Service Operations Manager for Coates Conrent before moving to a new role in the Coates national maintenance and safety team. “The move felt right to me,” he says. “I was looking at how we could improve maintenance, safety and the industry from a technical point of view, which would in turn, support our sales team and our customers.”
During this time Peter helped evolve Coates’ Maintenance Management System to a digital platform, ensuring equipment could be maintained consistently across the country.
“Safe and reliable equipment is so important, yet the variety of equipment can make it quite challenging,” says Peter. “It was a great comfort knowing that regardless of the equipment our people were working on, a detailed digital checklist of what needed to be done was available on their devices.”
He was also instrumental in leading the adoption of secondary guarding and operator protection systems on MEWPs at Coates. “It was quite a large investment but if it has saved one life, it’s been worth it.”
Leading the National Fleet
In 2017, Peter received a call that would again change the trajectory of his career.
“The CEO needed somebody to look after the national fleet for three months and asked if I could do it,” he says. “As I’ve always been one to say ‘yes’ and worry about the details later, I accepted.”
That temporary assignment turned into nine years as Executive General Manager, Asset Services, with responsibility for national fleet strategy, asset investment, performance and maintenance. Working with the CEO, CFO and the Coates Board, Peter helped frame a five-year investment plan of more than $1 billion to ‘smooth out’ the age profile of the fleet and align investment with customer demand and project pipelines.
He explains: “Instead of just saying, ‘we’ve got a defined replacement budget per equipment category,’ we asked: ‘what equipment isn’t performing and what do we need to do to improve it. What’s changing in customer requirements? What types of projects are coming in roads, rail, commercial? And what equipment do they need on those jobs?’”
Return on investment became a central discipline helping guide investment decisions across the business. Peter and his team also developed new supplier partnerships to improve value. “It’s relatively easy for a rental business to make money on the equipment, but you’ve also got to consider all the costs,” says Peter. “We optimised the operating model, right[1]sized the business and improved returns significantly.”
Asset management combined Peter’s inherent curiosity with his strong instincts to solve problems. “Thinking through where the economy will be in 12 months or two years’ time and the impact that has on equipment demand, what our customers will need and how we position the fleet was fascinating,” he says. “To then have the opportunity to influence the outcomes of Coates for many years was a privilege.”
Having completed his own apprenticeship, Peter also knew the hire industry offered one of the best training grounds for mechanics and in 2019, Coates reintroduced their apprenticeship program. Today, around 40 apprentices have been through the program with up to 20 now employed across the business.
Setting the standard in Australia and beyond
Beyond Coates, Peter has shared his experience and expertise more broadly in the industry. Since 2005, he’s served on Standards Australia committees for mobile elevating work platforms, telehandlers and forklifts and participated in international ISO working groups.
One of the most important outcomes in his time has been the standardisation of controls on MEWPs, which he describes as a win for the industry. He’s also currently involved in developing an International Standard for operator protective systems, shaping the design and performance expectations for the next generation of safety technology.
Evolving leadership
Over more than four decades, Peter has also evolved as a leader. Known for being straightforward, he describes his style as authentic, direct and respectful. As he’s progressed from front-line management into executive leadership, his focus has also shifted from personally solving problems to enabling others to do so.
“People come to you thinking you’ve got all the answers, but the reality is you don’t. What you can do is listen and help them find the right person or the right way forward.”
His advice to emerging leaders is simple: be curious, work hard and say yes. “Sometimes you’ve just got to say ‘yes’ because you may not get another opportunity.”
‘Bleeding orange’
Now in what he calls ‘semi-retirement’, Peter says his commitment to the industry remains as he continues to consult and mentor. He’s remained on Standards Committees and will help the EWPA whenever they need.As for Coates, his love for the company and its people runs deep. “When you see Coates equipment on the side of the road or on a construction site anywhere in Australia, you know you’ve played a part in helping build the country.”
It’s a sense of belonging that ensures he will ‘bleed orange’ for life. “I was lucky to have started here as an apprentice and gained experience on the tools and in management,” he says. “But I still pinch myself: how did that young kid who walked into the Miranda workshop just shy of 17, end up walking out as part of the executive leadership team?”
“It’s been an amazing journey.”
