Guaranty Bank announces five-year, $5M expansion plan

The bank operates eight full-service banks and three loan production offices in southwest Missouri.

The first two banks in the expansion plan will be in Christian County. Guaranty Bank has a building under contract in Ozark, on Highway J across from Lambert’s Café. Remodeling on that facility, the bank’s first Ozark presence, should begin in September and be complete by the end of the year.

“Ozark is a hole that we don’t have a facility in, and we’ve had numerous requests from current customers to be there,” CEO Shaun Burke said. “We’re very much a retail focused bank, and there’s great lending opportunity there with the residential growth.”

The second location will be in Nixa; the bank is finalizing plans to build a full-service facility at Highway CC and Main Street, marking the bank’s third Nixa location. Burke said that location, expected to be open in first-quarter 2008, will give the bank better coverage of Nixa’s northeast side.

The plan also includes other towns in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area; Burke said two potential locations in Republic are under consideration for new branches, and existing facilities on West Battlefield Road and North Glenstone Avenue in Springfield will soon receive facelifts.

Butler, Rosenbury & Partners is designing the two Christian County locations. Morelock-Ross Builders is the general contractor on the Ozark branch, but a contractor has not been selected in Nixa.

Cost of the projects varies; the free-standing Nixa branch will cost $1.5 million, Burke said, while the other remodeling projects are considerably less expensive.

The company also plans to move its information technology and operations support personnel to an undisclosed building Guaranty has under contract in south Springfield.

The decision to expand is one Burke said the bank has been considering for quite some time, ever since it converted from a thrift charter to a commercial bank charter in June 2003.

“We got our house in order,” Burke said, noting that the bank closed underperforming locations inside Springfield Dillon’s stores. “The first two or three years were to get competitive, hire key people, and now this is Phase II of the growth plan. We just need to grow our footprint.”

Among the key people is Carter Peters, who was promoted to chief financial officer when Bruce Winston retired in February.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares Inc., the holding company for Guaranty Bank, posted positive earnings in first-quarter 2007; earnings per share rose 7 cents to 63 cents. Company stock (Nasdaq: GFED) closed July 9 at $30.05, just off its 52-week high of $30.95.

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