When the acquisition was announced in June 2015, Bear State Bank wasn’t a known quantity in southwest Missouri. How has the transition been?
The transition has been good. Bear State Bank acquired their first bank in 2011. They invested $46 million into a bank to recapitalize it. So yes, in the Springfield market, and what we call the north region, it was a new name. We just tell our story, as we did with Metropolitan National Bank. The common theme of questions from the customers when it was announced was, “How do you feel about the acquisition?” and the second would be “Are you going to stay?” As soon as they heard yes to both, then their response was, “Then, I’m good.”
Metropolitan’s 25,300-square-foot Springfield operations center was closed in the second quarter. What other staffing changes have you made?
There are a few less employees. In the north region – also the largest region – today we have 15 branches, a loan production office in Joplin, 19 lenders spread throughout and 127 employees.
We have the same number of branches as we had before, plus the three that came in from Harrison. We are down in employees because when there is an acquisition there is a duplication on the operations side of the bank.
Consolidating operations into Bear State’s incredible building just down the road in Harrison was the right decision. Many of our employees that officed in the operations center were able to move into vacant space that existed in our facilities at South National, Glenstone, and our newest location at the Marshfield Spur.
According to SBJ list research, in November 2015 Metropolitan had $218 million in deposits, within 50 miles of Springfield. In your expanded region of southwest Missouri and Harrison, Ark., how does that compare to today?
Within our region, from a deposit base we have approximately $530 million. Loans we have about $405 million.
How is the bank doing overall?
(CEO) Mark (McFatridge) and the bank released second-quarter earnings for Bear State Bank, and we had net income of $4.5 million. That was up 80 percent over second quarter last year. That was in big part due to the integration of Metropolitan. Earnings per share were 12 cents, up from 8 cents in second quarter 2015. We are having a great year and we will continue to focus in my region on growth.
What does that growth look like?
The next step is to continue the organic growth we have experienced for the last three years. In that time, this region has grown approximately 10 percent a year, which is a very controlled growth.
How does 10 percent growth compare industrywide?
These are rough numbers, I would say that is successful, but controlled growth. That is probably in the middle. You have banks that have been more conservative, staying even or 1 or 2 percent growth. You have some that have grown 17, 18, 19 percent. One might argue that is too rapid and not controlled.
Company culture can be harder to mesh than assets. A year in, how’s the transition?
It can be. In this case, it has ended up being a very positive and fun thing. We already had a similar culture. With McFatridge still leading the bank, MNB today still highly influences the culture of Bear State Bank.
What’s next for Bear State in southwest Missouri?
My goal for my region is to provide the organic growth that Bear State Bank needs as an entirety. Bear State Bank in the big picture, they will continue to grow organically and though acquisitions and mergers.
A food truck that launched last year rebranded and moved to Metro Eats; automotive repair business Mitchem Tire Co. expanded its Christian County presence; and O’Reilly Build LLC was acquired.
