Game Plan

Out of several recent successes at Community Bank & Co., executive Trevor Burgess probably fields the most questions about the bank's partnership with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Makes sense, considering two years ago, the bank, like many lenders on the Gulf Coast, was stuck trying to raise enough capital to survive. Hosting clients in a decked out suite and plastering its name on ATMs and signs in and around an NFL stadium wasn't on the list of priorities.

But a partnership with the Bucs was exactly what Community Bank, with 17 branches spread from Pasco to Charlotte counties, was able to score. A subsidiary of Lakewood Ranch-based CBM Florida Holding Co., the bank signed a five-year deal with the Bucs in October. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Community Bank, with $733.5 million in assets through Sept. 30, is now a “Pewter Partner” with the Bucs — a position no bank has played since BB&T's deal ended in 2008. “It wasn't just a Hail Mary pass to attract customers,” says Burgess. “This was an opportunity for us to align our brand with a very successful regional brand. We are doing this in a measured way.”

The measured way has worked. That goes back to when a group led by Brazilian investor Marcello Lima and Burgess bought the bank with a capital infusion of at least $11.5 million in late 2009. (See Business Review, Sept. 10, 2010.)

The comeback was aided by a spend-to-grow strategy, both in acquisitions and marketing. On the former, the bank closed earlier this year on a $10 million deal to buy Pinellas Park-based First Community Bank of America. It added $30 million of capital into the combined operations.

“We are very focused on building the best bank in Tampa Bay,” says Burgess, who is CEO of CBM Florida Holding Co. “There are very few banks in this area that are growing.”

Fueled in part by the FCBA acquisition, Community Bank is one of the few. Assets, for one, rose 174.68% in the third quarter, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, from $267 million in 2010 to the $733.5 million figure in 2011. That growth rate made Community Bank the second fastest-growing community bank on the Gulf Coast, according to FDIC data analyzed by the Business Review, behind only Port Charlotte-based Encore National Bank.

Community Bank has grown in other ways, too. Quarterly profits were up 800% in the third quarter, from $105,000 last year to $945,000 in 2011. Moreover, the bank's return on equity and return on assets moved from the negative to positive in the third quarter.

The bank's marketing push, meanwhile, has been more than the Bucs partnership. Burgess declines to discuss the specific marketing and advertising budget, but it's widespread. It runs radio ads and newspaper print ads in several newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times and the Business Review.

One of the advertising campaigns of late has focused on an offer to pay new customers $5 per month to switch banks. The bank launched that campaign in October, a response to Bank of America's proposed $5 debit card purchase fee.

The campaign brought in 250 new accounts in the first month alone, says Community Bank President Katie Pemble. That's a tenfold increase over an average month. The surge has since slowed, but the bank still gets about eight to 10 new customers a week from the promotion, which is scheduled to end Dec. 31.

The campaign had an added bonus. The bank, says Burgess, got it out so quickly that it was credited with being the first in the region, and the country, to do it. For being first, Burgess was called for interviews with Fox News and CBS Market Watch to promote the deal.

Aborted acquisition

On the way to a record year of growth and earnings, Lakewood Ranch-based Community Bank & Co. has had several success stories.

But one move, an attempted acquisition of Clearwater-based Old Harbor Bank, didn't work like Community executives hoped.

In early summer, Community Bank executives and shareholders were ready to invest $25 million into Old Harbor, which had struggled with undercapitalization issues. But Community Bank called off the deal by the fall.

Community Bank executives didn't say much publicly about the aborted acquisition at the time. But in a recent interview, Community Bank CEO Trevor Burgess says Old Harbor, which regulators shuttered Oct. 24, was doomed.

“The problems there were just too large,” says Burgess, “and the FDIC were the only ones that could deal with a problem of that magnitude.”