By TERRY WARD Morning News
FLORENCE – When you ask First Reliance Bank president and CEO Rick Saunders how to succeed in the banking business, he has a simple answer.
“We have a value system that is centered around our employees and our customers, and we stick to that,” he said. “We take care of them. We believe our entire team of people are excited to come to work and that grows our franchise.”
And adhering to these principles has garnered results for the bank. Established in 1999, First Reliance, the only bank based in Florence, was named to the list of South Carolina’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2004, ranked at No. 16.
The S.C. Chamber of Commerce recently honored the 25 companies on the list during a meeting in Charleston. The 25 companies are designated by ElliottDavis, a Greenville-based accounting and consulting firm.
Saunders points out that First Reliance is the only bank on the list. And its success was not guaranteed.
“Our initial team (left) Pee Dee State Bank,” he said. “We started with 12 employees (in 1999).”
When Pee Dee State Bank was bought out, he and his brother, Paul, wanted to go in a different direction than the direction the buyers of Pee Dee State Bank were going. Paul is a senior lender with First Reliance, and Dale Porter, another of the original team members, is operations manager.
Managing to pull together $7.2 million in assets in its first year, First Reliance has seen gradual and steady growth for five years. Now the bank boasts $270 million in assets. It has the third-largest market share in Florence County.
To help put it in perspective, Saunders said nearly half the banks in the United States have less than $100 million in assets.
From January of this year until November, First Reliance’s assets have grown by $90 million. The bank has increased its number of employees in that time period from 71 to 89.
And there is a method to First Reliance’s rapid growth.
“Part of it (the growth) is that we are flexible. We can alter our strategy according to the opportunity,” Saunders said.
With a goal of becoming a statewide bank, First Reliance has an office in Lexington. That’s in addition to its two full-service branches in Florence. It also has its operations and technical center in Florence. The bank is awaiting regulatory approval to open an office in Charleston.
Saunders said that regardless of growth, he believes First Reliance will always be based in Florence. And, he said, the bank will stick to its principles.
“We want to be big, but we will do it the right way,” he said. “Every time we grow, the money comes back to Florence County.”
