Bank bringing change to Mullins

During the past three months, much of the nation’s citizens, business and entities have begun the coming to terms with a national credit crisis that has affected the leanest and fattest of wallets.
Most Marion County residents and business are no exceptions. With the national election behind us, many say they are ready for a positive change.

On the national level, there are three mega banks left standing at this point. Director of the S.C. Municipal Association Miriam Hair recently wrote, “The economic downturn, credit crisis and cap on local millage rates have all created problems for local governments.” Several government entities and their programs are facing cuts, with come cities using hiring freezes and others postponing the purchasing of new equipment and vehicles.

And so it is with individuals as well. Unemployment in Marion County is above15 percent and with no jobs, there is little discretionary income. Little income means fewer purchases, which means smaller tax revenues. South Carolina’s school districts, businesses, cities, towns and counties are feeling the consequences of the assessment cap passed in the state in 2006, Hair said, on top of the national credit and banking crisis and fewer revenues being collected.

Officials and business owners are trimming all fat and some lean to be better able to cope with the sober economic times. In the midst of such a setting, there is a bright spot in Marion County, Anderson Brothers Bank, a regional bank based in Mullins, is slowly changing the town’s downtown landscape, reinventing older building to house a growing, financially secure, homegrown business.
ABB is a full service community bank that offers a complete range of competitive loan services and deposit products. Founded in 1933, this family-owned bank blends the elements of traditional personal service, local market awareness, and advanced technology to meet the financial needs of its customers, company officials say.

Bank officials announced the breaking of ground for a new bank in the Longs Community of Horry County, and additional branch offices opened this year in Florence, Georgetown and Horry Counties.
Atkinson Construction of Marion began construction on the Longs site in October and has been making the Mullins site improvements. ABB also announced it has purchased more adjoining property to accommodate anticipated growth in Mullins.

In a www.newsweek.com article in late October, “Is Your Money Safe?,” writer Katie Paul said “the world’s major financial institutions have gone topsy-turvy.” With the federal government’s bail out, folks everywhere are wondering which banks are safe. Paul wrote that of community banks, only 15 percent of the more than 8, 000 smaller institutions reported losses during the second quarter of this year. In fact, she wrote, many community banks reported their deposits increased in spite of, or perhaps because of, the grim news in the banking industry as a whole.
Perry Grice, marketing manager at ABB agrees. “Our deposits are up… our lending is up… We were not invested in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” he said. Most local banks, such as ABB, employ sound business practices and are overall sound, stable, well capitalized and trustworthy, he added.

Looking north, ABB flanks Main Street at it Front Street juncture in Mullins. To the east is the commercial and consumer lending offices and further down the street is the old B.C. Moore store that the bank has purchased. To the west is the Main Branch and corporate offices.

Additional branches means more office space is needed in Mullins as the business expands its management and support staff, President and CEO of Anderson Brothers Bank David Anderson explained. The home office renovations will create 10 offices at the Main Street location, Grice Said, which are in the town’s former Western Auto store. A new information Technology (IT) suite is being constructed on the second level of the bank’s administration building (formerly known as Western Auto) and will feature seven new offices and expanded technician work areas, he said, and the ground level of the bank’s main office is being renovated to include a new suite for the bank’s human resources and compliance departments.

ABB has acquired several parcels of land, including the site where Mullins’ city water tower stood before it was recently removed. That area will help to extend the bank’s parking area. The bank has acquired land that extends in its boundaries to Smith Street, Grice said.

On two of these sites, abandoned buildings were demolished and removed, helping to clean up the town one lot at a time.
“Over the past several years, we’ve experienced a considerable amount of growth…” Anderson said, adding “… Although this administrative growth is less conspicuous than new branch buildings, it is significant to our operations as well as the local economies in Mullins and Marion County.” The bank employs 193 people and in the not-to-distant past, made renovations to another store front that allowed the bank to open a state-of-the-art training and conference center.

Grice said “The renovations are on track,” and that employees will likely begin occupying their new offices the first of the year.
Also, he said, in the next couple of weeks, “We’ll begin another renovation project--to the upstairs area in the original bank building.
This project, Grice said, is not for additional workspace, but for improved use of workspace and aesthetics.