Meet The Owners: First Colebrook Bank

First Colebrook Bank has a long history in New Hampshire and is invested in the community.

It was founded in 1889 in Colebrook, which lies near the Canadian border, by a millionaire in the logging industry. He felt that there were not enough local banks to help people in his field at the time.

The bank did not branch out until 1997, when it was established in Concord. The Amherst location opened in 2005 and was followed by the opening of the Portsmouth location in 2009. The location in Colebrook primarily serves those in the wood product industry, but down here they work with regular businesses like chiropractors, electricians and automotive dealers.

Amy Wheeler started off as a bank teller and began working for the Amherst bank when it opened seven years ago. The longtime New Hampshire resident is now Vice President/Commercial Lending & Marketing Coordinator for the bank.

We talked to Amy about First Colebrook Bank and how it fits into the local community.

Patch: How does your bank fit into Amherst?

Amy: Our bank is over a hundred years old and we are very proud of our history and big on preserving it. That lines up with most of New Hampshire are certainly does with Amherst. We are also very responsible and the portion that we give back to the community is a larger percent than you would find at larger institutions. We try to support the community to great lengths, not just dollar and cents, but also with time. Many of us are Rotarians, members of Lions Club, on boards of directors for non-profits or serving with Chamber of Commerce. We are committed, and have weathered more recessions than the one we just had; technically our bank even weathered the great depression. We know how to navigate and we are going to be here another 100 years.

Patch: What makes your bank special?

Amy: We pride ourselves on the fact that we are a New Hampshire-only bank and we are interested in supporting New Hampshire businesses. When a business needs money to fund their capitol or expand, we will take a look at their individual situation. For example, some businesses may be seasonal and we can adjust their billing depending on when their business is open. The larger banks have to draw the line somewhere and say 'we can do this and cannot do that period'. Also, when we are doing loans, we never order a credit score and I don’t know of another bank that does this. I literally look at their history and decide if it makes sense to do the loan or not. Elsewhere, they would give an automatic denial just because their score was a different number. Here, we will at least take a look at nearly anything and maneuver so it benefits both the customer and the bank. A lot of banks and businesses say they will give good customer service, but I think we really deliver. We have employees who bend over backwards to accommodate customers.

Patch: What are the struggles facing the small business you work with?

Amy: Their cash flow is less and it is hard for those who may have taken out a loan in 2006-07 when things were still good and they had a cash flow that totally supported their debt. Now they may have had to downsize, but the loan didn’t go away and we make adjustments for them. We also have some businesses who say that their specific line of business is doing okay, but they are not collecting on their receivables very quickly. People owe them money and those people are struggling, so now they are not getting the money that is owed to them. We try to be as compassionate and understanding as possible because we know these business people as our neighbors. We want to help them as much as we can in reason. We are pretty patient and understanding despite what many other media outlets might portray.

Patch: What are some challenges of running a bank?

Amy: A recent challenge has been the misinformation about banking. A lot of national level news stories portray banks in general sense, when really they are talking about the Lehman Brothers, which is not technically a bank. You get this negative persona that all banks are lumped into one. We have to combat a false negative image of us as bankers and what we actually do for the economy. I just wish people were more informed of what a local New Hampshire bank does. The other challenge that is always there, and gets worse with time, is regulation. The government comes up with more and more regulations that they impose on banks, which are probably made with good intent to protect the consumer, but creates a lot of obstacles for the bank to deliver a service to the customer in a timely and inexpensive manner.

Patch: What are the rewards of running a bank?

Amy: For me and probably many others, the most rewarding thing is to see businesses succeed or get started. You feel like you are a part of their success. A good example would be Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which is a successful chain elsewhere in the country. An individual wanted to bring it to New Hampshire and brought it to other banks, but he really got the runaround. He was referred to us and we were able to do what he needed to do and he now has five stores in the state. It is now wildly popular here and I take a ton of pride every time I go into that store or drive by it.

Visit their website at www.firstcolebrookbank.com.