Page 16 - BusinessWest March 20, 2023

Matt Garrity says the strategic plan for Florence Bank calls for controlled, orderly growth.
Staff Photo
with the people in those businesses, that’s when you start to think that you can do this on a broader level,” he said, adding that it was several years ago that he considered himself both ready and willing to consider those calls from recruiters asking him to consider bank- presidency positions.
And there were many of them in recent years, Garrity noted, adding that he was, in a word, selective about which ones to pursue.
“Not every bank CEO position was in a part of the country that my wife and I would be comfortable going to, or you really wanted to go to, since we had optionality,” he told BusinessWest. “We were somewhat selective about
the ‘where,’ the ‘what,’ and the ‘who’ we would be working with.”
As noted earlier, Florence, now with $2 billion in total assets, checked many of the boxes on his list, especially finan- cial strength, corporate culture, and a long history of service to, and involve- ment in, the community.
In recent years, that word ‘communi- ty’ has come to mean much more than Florence, he said, and its definition will
“One of the founding principles of the bank back in 1873 was ‘neighbors helping neighbors,’ and that’s as important to us today as it was back then.”
continue to broaden in years to come. As he talked about the bank’s
growth strategy and the next steps in that plan, Garrity acknowledged that there is a great deal of competition in the region, and it comes with institu- tions of all sizes, from smaller com- munity banks — Florence is still in that category — to very large regional and national banks, like Chase, which just opened a branch in downtown Springfield and will soon open anoth- er in Northampton (see story on page 18). But he also acknowledged that banks like Florence need to continue growing at a time when size certainly does matter.
“We’ll look to continue to grow the bank in Western Massachusetts, look- ing for opportunities to grow not only in Hampden County, where the bank has started to grow in recent years
— we’ll look to continue that strategy — but also with our commercial busi- ness within the bank.”
Taking Things into Account
Florence currently has 12 branch- es, nine in Hampshire County and those three in Hampden County. Future growth will likely be within that footprint, Garrity said, adding that, while several area banks have ventured into Northern Connecticut, Florence has no immediate plans to follow suit.
“As we look to continue to build the franchise, we’ll be strategic about that and determine what makes the most sense for us, and where the Florence Bank story makes the most sense for the community and for the bank.”
Despite advances in technology and the ability of consumers to do much of their banking remotely, he added, there is still a place for brick- and-mortar branches, for reasons that include everything from quality of ser- vice to marketing.
“Branches are more than deposit-
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MARCH 20, 2020
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