“During February 2024, CJD Equipment, a proudly Western Australian, privately owned organisation celebrate its 50th year in operation”.
From humble beginnings at the Guildford location, with 28 willing staff on board whom shared the vision of founders Ron Rafferty and Rob Jowett, the legacy began. 50 years later, with nearly 600 dedicated members of staff across 23 national locations, the legacy continues.
Rafferty and Jowett first met as part of the sales team of Chamberlain Industries, a Welshpool based organisation specialising in tractors and farm equipment. In 1974 a wonderful yet daunting opportunity arose to become the West Australian dealer for the Chamberlain John Deere construction equipment product. Armed with a desire to succeed, a mantra that “we will make it happen”, always be customer centric and invest in staff so they can be the best they can be, they were off and running.
The business today revolves around people and product. That’s why it’s important to have not only the best people but to also represent quality, world class products. Today, CJD Equipment operates on the National stage and represents brands in both the construction equipment and the transport industries. CJD Equipment is the national dealer for both Volvo Construction Equipment and SDLG Construction Equipment. In the trucking space is the West Australian, Northern Territory and Tasmanian dealers for both Kenworth and DAF trucks as well as the Isuzu dealer for the Northern Territory.
As Ron Rafferty always says, “relationships are the backbone of any business” and this could not be more correct when it comes to CJD Equipment. Relationships with customers are pivotal and that why CJD has always had a “can do” attitude when comes to servicing its customers. The same is true when it comes to suppliers. The entire CJD team has pride in the durations of partnerships with its supplier base with a 40 year partnership with Paccar and over 32 year relationship with the Volvo Construction Equipment product. The length of these relationships mean we are not only in a position to talk the talk, but we can really walk the walk when it comes to sales, service and support of the products we represent.
Rob Jowett always maintains that CJD Equipment is only as good as the sum of its people, and he believes that it’s the people involved in the business, their passion, enthusiasm and commitment that has led to the long term success of CJD. It’s with pride that Rob talks about the fact the CJD Equipment has not only second generations of families employed at the company but also third generations.
In 2001 Alan Barnett joined the CJD family in a Commercial and Marketing role. It was only a short period of time until Alan had progressed his way to becoming CJD Equipment’s Managing Director as well as part of the business ownership structure. Alan shared all of the values that CJD embodied and along with Ron and Rob steered the business through a huge growth phase of the company and spear heading a rapid national expansion program following the appointment of the business to National Distributor for Volvo Construction Equipment.
Alan says, “we are a growing business, we will always want to be a growing business and at our core we are a sales business. In order to keep growing, we must keep selling and for this to happen we must deliver the best products, the best customer experiences and the best quality back up and support possible to each and every one of our customers, all of the time.”
CJD Equipment has always identified as “big enough to trust, small enough to care” and it’s this small statement that has been at the heart of the business and which has contributed in no small part to CJD Equipment being able grow in a strong national business over a long period of time whilst maintaining its founders mentality and family values.
Barnett says, “I’m incredibly proud of the 50 year milestone that we will be celebrating and I look forward watching the business continue to go from strength to strength in the many years to come.
