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Show Service with a smile pays off for Jan Peterson's growing business mmm. , . .... - J HZ t r fstcr ,:i:.;l-. .rz-u Crr"' f- J '""ci- T8"'''' " - f f " " 1 r F A !;a byNANCHALAT Record staff writer Jans Mountain Outfitters will be celebrating its fifth anniversary of business in Park City and the grand opening of its newest branch at the Park City Resort Plaza with a day of special promotions Saturday. Satur-day. Jan Peterson, who co-founded the business with financial partners Tom Matthews, Bill Coleman and Peter Taylor, attributes its success to "the exceptional people who work for us." In the last five years, Jans has expanded ex-panded from one location to three and, according to Peterson, it has been a success from the beginning. "Our volume has grown 67 percent each year and currently our Park Avenue store sells more Salomon boots than any other single retail outlet in the country," he said. Peterson has an impressive background in both skiing and merchandising. mer-chandising. Born in Salt Lake City, his father, Willis "Pete" Peterson, was on the forefront of the young ski industry. In the 1930s, Pete started the first ski shop in Utah and became one of the original investors in a new resort called Alta. When skiing the local areas of the day, he wore National Ski Patrol Badge No. 9 and in a leather rucksack on his back he carried car-ried his infant son, Jan. "I can't even remember the first time I went skiing. I must have been about 3 years old," Peterson said. After earning a bachelor's degree in marketing from the Universiity of Utah, Peterson headed for the glitzy Sept. 27, 1980, Jans Mountain Outfitters Outfit-ters opened on Park Avenue. From the start, Peterson said he has emphasized service. "We don't have any clerks in our stores. They are all experts at what they do. They enjoy helping customers with their equipment problems so they can learn to be better skiers," Peterson said. Peterson also has reinvested some of his success in the community. He has been an avid supporter of the Park City Education Foundation, which has helped to develop the talents of several local skiers, and he served as its president for three years. "I've wanted to help make racing less expensive for local families," he said. Peterson also pioneered a Locals Only program at his stores, which gives Park City skiers the opportunity opportuni-ty to sell equipment back to Jans for a guaranteed discount on new skis. "Locals are everything to us. That's why we offer our big sales on Labor Day and Easter so they can get the best deals," he said. In addition to the three stores on Park Avenue, at Deer Valley and now on the Resort Plaza at the north end of the skating rink, Peterson also operates Mountain Design. The business, which he describes as Park City's only light industry, offers of-fers a complete silkscreen and embroidery em-broidery service. Mountain Design originally was started to keep more of his people employed year-round, Peterson said. It has since grown into a stable business that has exclusive rights to the Deer Valley logo. , f NanChalat Jan Peterson will be celebrating the opening of his new store on the Resort Plaza, Saturday. advertising world of San Francisco, where he worked for eight years. But, according to Peterson, as soon as he graduated from the creative work of writing copy to the administrative ad-ministrative hassles of managing accounts, he decided to return to Utah. In Park City, Peterson found a way to put both his skiing and marketing skills to work as manager of Wolfe's new Park City sporting goods store. He worked there through 1978, when he was involved in a serious car accident. It was while recovering that Mathews encouraged him to start his own store, Peterson said. And on |