News & Views

Loans to Rochester small businesses are alive and well, reports the Democrat & Chronicle. Small Buiness Administation (SBA) lending in Rochester has been climbing, with 406 made in fiscal 2011, surpassing the 360 made in fiscal 2010.

For the current fiscal year, GRB was one of the banks that has doubled SBA loans made in the same time period last year.

April is Community Banking Month, and GRB is getting the word out about the benefits of banking locally. This article, from the Institute of Local Self-Reliance, lists the top five reasons to choose a community bank (or credit union).

GRB lives up to all of these reasons, and proves that banking locally supports the Rochester community in many ways.

Top 5 Reasons to Choose a Community Bank or Credit Union

Midtown Athletic Club's member magazine, Spirit, recently interviewed GRB Chairman Phil Saunders. In part one of a two-part article, Phil talkes about his first business, making water skis at age 16, and other ventures in transportation, distribution, and energy businesses. Part two will be published in next quarter's issue.

Read the full article here.

April is Community Banking Month, and Genesee Regional Bank (GRB) is celebrating the vital role that community banks serve in the economic, civil, and cultural life of their communities. This commemorative month is a program of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). 

“It is GRB’s mission as a community bank to help grow Rochester business,” said Phil Pecora, GRB President & CEO. “With our stable assets and local decision making, we have the flexibility to find creative solutions to small businesses’ financing needs. Building deep-rooted relationships with clients by offering highly personalized service and local economic expertise is part of the unique banking experience we provide.”

As we highlighted on the blog back in November 2011, a GRB client, Pactech was selected as Monroe County's Business of the Month. They had recently moved their packaging manufacturing operations into a facility on Manitou Road in Ogden, helping them to expand their business.

Pactech President Chad Buchta and Vice President John Ferber recently sent a letter to GRB President Phil Pecora detailing GRB's role in the purchase of their location and new equipment, as well as an appreciation of our customer service team. 

Thanks to a stable regional economy and a local customer base well-known to lenders, regional commercial lending standards have stayed the course since the 2008 financial crisis, reports the Rochester Business Journal.

Dave Halladay, senior vice president and GRB's chief lending officer, is quoted extensively in the article. "Customers who put expansions on hold are now looking to grow." He adds that GRB is making loans in sectors from manufacturing to sevices.

Continuing his contributions to the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester, GRB Chairman Phil Saunders was on hand to judge a pizza creation contest. Held at UNO Chicago Grill's Henrietta location on February 23, twenty kids from the Boys & Girls Club devised pizza recipes that were cooked by UNO chefs.

Photo courtesy of Henrietta Post.

GRB client Seibold Security, Inc. today announced plans to increase its workforce and expand its Rochester headquarters. Read the RBJ article here.

We are proud to be associated with firms like Seibold who are contributing to the expansion of our local economy. 

Adding another fundraiser to it's annual calendar, the EquiCenter's inaugural Paddles for Saddles paddle tennis tournament is Saturday, March 3. Sign up for men's or women's doubles; all levels welcome! 

Check out our banner at Midtown:

Empire State Lyric Theatre presents a chamber opera festival, March 2 - 4, 2012, and GRB is proud to be a major sponsor.

Susan Cotroneo, Executive Director, says that this festival is the first of its kind in the region. "Chamber opera is opera on a smaller scale; one act staged performances," she notes.  Even those new to opera will find these accessible and entertaining.

GRB is proud to be a sponsor of one of our clients' events, the 5th Annual Meaghan's Hope 5K on April 21, 2012. Money raised supports the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center and the Lipson Cancer Center, directed towards lung cancer research. Click here for race details and to register.

Congratulations to GRB client Pactech Packaging, Monroe County's Business of the Month for November. We are proud to have financed their new manufacturing facility. Read the county's press release here.

GRB is proud to announce we are ranked #41 on the 2011 Rochester Top 100 list. This is our fourth year on the Rochester Business Alliance's list, which ranks the region's fastest growing, privately held companies.

Preident & CEO Phil Pecora notes that the bank's success is a tribute to the hard work of our employees, and is also linked to the success and loyalty of our clients, many of whom share in the Top 100 rankings.

(Read about one of those clients, Fibertech Networks, in this D&C profile for their 4th place ranking.)

We congratulate our client, Mark Gentile, President & CEO of Odyssey Software, on his recent award from the Rochester Small Business Council. At their annual luncheon, Gentile was named Business Person of the Year in the category of businesses with fewer than 50 employees.    

The Greece Chamber of Commerce today announced the six finalists for their Small Business of the Year Awards.  GRB is proud to be the presenting sponsor of this event for the third year in a row. Highlighting the successful, entrepreneurial, and community-minded small businesses that abound in Greece, there are two award categories this year. The Microenterprise of the Year (10 employees or fewer, and less than $2 million in revenue) joins the Small Business of the Year category.

GRB has been awarded five stars in Bankrate.com's Safe and Sound Ratings Service for the quarter ended September 30, 2011. A 5-star rating is the highest award rating and is defined as a "Superior" ranking of financial strength and stability.

GRB client Mark Landers and his wife Michelle run a successful car wash business, building and opening their most recent one with financing from GRB on Rt. 31F in Perinton.  They have three kids, and lead a busy life as small business owners.  Last March, Mark nearly died.

GRB client CJ Rapp, inventor of Jolt cola, recently launched a new beverage. Karma water debuted locally in September. We are proud to be part of the local team that brought Rapp's next creation to market.

From coverage in the Democrat & Chronicle: 

Rapp said he made it a point with the new company to involve other Rochester-area businesses in various aspects of the enterprise.

"There are 10 to 12 locally based companies that have a business role with the new company," Rapp said. "There is tremendous talent in this community."

Among the local businesses involved are ValTech, Hammer Packaging, Martino Flynn, The Bonadio Group and Wright Wisner Distributing Corp. These local firms and others are doing parts of the overall process, such as manufacturing and distributing the caps and labels, designing the bottle and marketing the product using traditional and online approaches.

As reported back in April, GRB Chairman Phil Saunders donated $10M to the University of Rochester Medical Center. The gift supports clinical care and research in neuromuscular disease, and underscores Saunders' desire to give to organizations that attract money and jobs to the region.

Photo via URMC.

As we work to help small business in Rochester grow even in these challenging economic times, it made sense for us to take advantage of federal funds available for just that purpose. GRB is one of 20 community banks nationwide to receive part of $253 million in capital through the Treasury Department's Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF).

Part of the Small Business Jobs Act, the SBLF was established to encourage community bank lending to small businesses. Read the Daily Record article here.