Though United Community Bank is the third-largest bank based in Georgia, it harbors little-bank ideas. Once a $40 million Blairsville, GA-based entity named Union County Bank, UCBI today has grown into a 21-bank holding company with offices in northern and coastal Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. In addition to its urban and rural clientele, the bank caters to a unique demographic niche: wealthy retirees who like a little hand-holding with their banking.
That's where UCB comes in, which prides itself on a down-home atmosphere where friendliness is a company mandate. "We're still in the people business," says Jimmy Tallent, president and CEO. "And we operate our company on what we call the golden rule of banking: treating people the way you and I would want to be treated." That means customers are greeted by name, thanked out loud for their business and offered free coffee-and dog biscuits for the faithful pooch at home-at drive-through centers.
The key, says Tallent, is to look within. "We've always felt if you have happy employees, then you generally have happy customers," he says. "The people who work at each of those banks and the autonomy that we attempt to provide our CEOs allows for that continual entrepreneurial spirit to gain momentum." When the bank when public in March 2002, each of the 1,247 employees received five shares of stock, valued at $14.66 each. After splitting twice, each share today is worth about $23.80. That's why Tallent calls it "a family-owned company," since employees still own about 33 percent of the bank.
Each of the 21 banks, which operate 80-plus branches, has an autonomous CEO. "They're leaders within their banks, leaders within their communities," says Tallent. "I've always felt that if you manage the parts, the whole will take care of itself." As of the second quarter, the bank's total assets grew to $4.1 billion, a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 22 percent; its net operating income rose to $40 million, a 10-year CAGR of 21 percent; and its per-share operating earnings soared to $1.68, a 10-year CAGR of 17 percent. Those are big numbers for a bank that thinks of itself as David competing against Goliaths like Regions, BB&T, Wachovia, SunTrust and BofA.
A key element of the bank's strategy is marketing, and its most innovative ploy is the spring tomato plant giveaway, a project now in its 19th year. "Most everyone I know likes a tomato, particularly in the summertime," says Tallent. "Every time someone eats one of those tomatoes, they think of United Community Bank." Every customer-appreciation weekend in May, participating branches give away up to six free tomato plants per customer; the party includes free hot dogs and soda while a country band twangs away into the afternoon. This year, the bank handed out 173,000 tomato plants, nearly 25 times that of 1985.
The biggest tomato of each branch is feted at summer's end-and any edge is welcomed, from Miracle Grow to homegrown manure. Winners, who earn $100 each and a photo in the North Georgia News, take the competition seriously. One flustered woman, Tallent recalls, fretted because "the tomato she had been pampering all summer had disappeared the night before, so she thought somebody might have gone by her garden to enter it into the contest." Though she waited at the bank for the rest of the day, the missing vegetable never surfaced. This summer's biggest tomato was 3 pounds 4 ounces, less than the record 4-pound, 1-ounce monster grown by a North Carolina customer in 2002.
Good public relations can take a bank pretty far when it comes to community spirit. UCBI's decade-old annual Banker's Hour, a Hee-Haw-style variety show that this year included the efforts of 160 employees, raised $14,400 for three local charities, showing off bankers' singing, acting and joke-telling talents. One would bet, however, that even if a performer's off-key serenade pierced an eardrum, no one would dare throw a tomato.
