Rhea County's biggest banks are combining operations and offices this weekend and will reopen Monday morning as a single bank under the Simply Bank moniker.
The merger of the Spring City-based Community National Bank with the Dayton-based SimplyBank will create a combined bank with about $685 million in assets and 11 branches in seven counties of Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. Although the banks overlap in some territories, the consolidation will close only two bank branches and bank officials are looking to soon add rather than trim the branch network.
"We're staying in our communities and we're not closing any markets with this merger," said John Owen, the president of Simply Bank who has been working for more than three years to bring the two banks together. "We're also planning on opening three new branches this year."
The Community National Bank branch in downtown Dayton is being converted into a corporate office for Simply Bank while what was the Simply Bank branch in Spring City is being consolidated into the former Community National Bank headquarters in Spring City.
But unlike most business mergers, the bank isn't looking to cut staff and facilities to save money. While the bank will realize some licensing savings with a single name, the combined bank is looking to grow offices and staff, not cut such costs, Owen said.
A new office is planned in Chattanooga and SimpyBank is also preparing to convert the loan production offices it opened last year in Cleveland and Knoxville into full-service bank branches by the end of 2021. Last year, SimplyBank also opened a new branch in Decatur, Tennessee.
Owen envisions SimplyBank doubling in asset size over the next five years by growing along the Highway 27 and Interstate 75 corridors between Chattanooga and Knoxville. Already, Simply Bank is preparing to expand the loan origination offices opened in recent years in Cleveland and Knoxville into full-service branches later this year.
"I can see us growing our assets to $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion on this branch network," he said. "Time will tell and banking is certainly changing a lot, but we'd like to top a billion dollars in assets pretty quickly and with the growth plans we have we think we can do that. I think we are as innovative and entrepreneurial as any community bank."
Kevin Smith, the chief lending officer at SimplyBank, said he was drawn to the community bank after working at bigger banks because of the innovative spirit at SimplyBank and the focus on community banking and customer service.
"In some ways, I don't feel like this is a merger of two banks as much as it is building a better new bank," Smith said. "Unifying these great local banks isn't the finish line. It's the jumping off point."
Owen, who previously co-founded Acumen Wealth Advisors with Reese Veltenaar and grew the assets of that investment firm to more than $175 million in only six years' time, was hired by bank chair Bernice Calfee Sale in the fall of 2017 to help oversee both the Rhea County community banks.
Banks at a glance
SimplyBankHeadquarters: Dayton, TennesseeAssets: $404.7 millionDeposits: $358.5 millionStaff: 89 employeesOffices: 7 bank branches in Rhea, Meigs, Polk and Roane counties and loan production offices in Knox and Bradley counties.History: Begun in 1890 as the Hamilton Bank of Rhea County, the bank later operated under the names Bank of Rhea County, Liberty Bank of Tennessee, United American Bank in Rhea County, City & County Bank of Rhea County, First Bank of Rhea County, First Bank of Tennessee, and since 2018, Simply Bank.Community National BankHeadquarters: Spring City, TennesseeAssets: $268.5 millionDeposits: $238.4 millionStaff: 71Offices: 6 bank branches in Rhea and Hamilton counties in Tennessee and Catoosa and Walker counties in GeorgiaHistory: Begun in 1964 as the First National County Bank, Spring City, the bank later operated as Rhea County National Bank and, since 2003, as Community National Bank.Source: FDIC reports as of Dec. 31, 2020.
Sale is the widow of the late George Calfee, the owner of the Calfee's convenience store chain that later became Favorite Markets. George Calfee bought the Community National Bank, the former First Bank of Rhea County and Rossville Bank in the 1980s. After purchasing the banks, Calfee announced plans to unite the organizations into a single community bank, but Calfee died in 1986 before he could complete the unification.
The Calfee family has maintained ownership of the banks since but until now has operated both Community National Bank and SimplyBank, formerly the First Bank of Rhea County, as separate banks under a common owner. Together, the two banks now serve about 32,000 customers who received notices of the bank merger in the past month.
"Our team and our organizations have been unified in leadership and philosophy for a long time," Owen said. "Now, we're living up to our name and simplifying how and where you bank with us."
To help differentiate First Bank of Tennessee from rival FirstBank which bought the former AmSouth bank operations in Rhea County in 2010, Owen decided to rename First Bank of Tennessee into SimplyBank in October 2018.
Bank officials are trying to bring the personalized and community focus of the locally owned community banks together with the technology and services of a bigger bank. SimplyBank has spent more than $2 million upgrading all of its bank branches with more modern and attractive offices over the past couple of years and last year the bank hired the Disney organization to help train the two banks' staffs on how to deliver the best customer service.
The culture of the bank is rooted now in posters that urge employees to promote being SKIE - safe, kind, inviting and efficient - in both in-person and online services.
The SimplyBank name also reflects what the bank is trying to be for its customers.
"Our name is also an aspiration for what we're trying to make our experience like for our customers," said Alex Green, marketing director for SimplyBank. "Banks can be intimidating and hard to understand, but our goal and what we're trying to showcase in our branches is to make it easy for someone to open a checking account or to do a multitude of other banking operations."
Anthony Lastoria, head of retail delivery for SimplyBank, said the bank "is deeply rooted in being customer-obsessed with the folks in our market.
"That's what true community banking is," Lastoria said. "But we also saw that in East Tennessee we need to get into some larger metro markets so we can provide that same service to more people."
That's why Chattanooga, Cleveland and Knoxville are targets for new branches.
"We've already had great success with our loan production offices and we're looking forward to expanding those operations into full-service branches," Lastoria said.
While customers are coming into branches less often than in the past, office locations remain important in maintaining relationships and demonstrating commitment in a community, Owen said. While many other community banks are merging with larger regional and national banks, Owen said the owners of SimplyBank want to maintain a locally owned and managed bank.
"You look around right now and there are a lot of mergers and acquisitions happening in the banking space," Owen said. "When community banks refuse to change and adjust, they can't compete. So we're changing and growing, and we're leading instead of retreading."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.