Customer Growth Drives Prairie Grove Expansion
by March 4, 2002 12:00 am 52 views
John Lewis, chairman of the Bank of Fayetteville N.A., said his bank’s strategy for its Jan. 30 expansion into Prairie Grove is so simple it’s new age.
The seven-person Prairie Grove branch opened temporary offices at 801 Buchanan St. A permanent, 3,250-SF facility at 751 W. Buchanan St. is under construction.
Lewis said the bank accumulated 12 employees over time who happened to live in west Washington County.
He said that gave the bank an advantage in Prairie Grove.
“So we thought, ‘Let’s make the most use of this opportunity,'” Lewis said.
Prairie Grove, which is about 10 miles southwest of Fayetteville on U.S. Highway 62, is only the second city outside the bank’s hometown where it has established a branch. Bank of Fayetteville has operated its West Fork office for 12 years.
The June 2001 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. market share analysis, the last report available, showed that Arvest Bank of Prairie Grove had $72.4 million in deposits, or 88.5 percent of that city’s market. Simmons First Bank of Northwest Arkansas was the only other player with $9.4 million, or 11.5 percent of the market’s deposits.
Through September, Bank of Fayetteville had deposits of $178 million, or about 8.8 percent of all deposits in Washington County.
Lewis said the new branch has been successful, but it’s too new to report financials.