Marlborough Co-op Completes Merger With Butler | Bank will retain name and local branches
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Marlborough Co-Operative President and CEO Janet M. Bruno.
Photo/Courtesy
Butler Bank President and CEO John H. Pearson Jr.
Administrative employees at Marlborough Co-operative Bank’s main office are packing their bags and moving to Lowell as their employer completes a merger with Butler Bank.
The consolidation of operations comes more than a year after the two banks merged their mutual holding companies.
Joining Forces
Ginger Burke, Butler’s vice president of marketing, said no jobs will be lost in the consolidation.
“We’re going to work hard at making sure the right people are in the right spots,” she said. “We have no intention of laying anyone off right now.”
The two banks’ branches will keep their current names, although Marlborough will legally be a subsidiary of Butler, Burke said. She said they will continue to have a “strong retail presence” in all the communities where they do business now.
Marlborough Co-operative has two locations in Marlborough: its main office at 175 Main St. and another branch at Post Road Plaza on Boston Post Road. It also has ATMs at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Marlborough and in all Massachusetts Price Chopper locations.
Butler Bank has three locations: two in Lowell and one that it opened in Andover last year. It previously had a location in Kennebunk, Maine but closed the office within the past year because of conditions in the construction lending market, Burke said.
Butler President and CEO John H. Pearson Jr. will be non-executive chairman of the merged bank, and Marlborough Co- Operative President and CEO Janet M. Bruno will be the president and CEO. Pearson also serves as CEO and chairman of the mutual holding company’s board, while Bruno is vice-chairman, president and COO.
Burke said the merger is on schedule according to the banks’ original plans. The decision to merge was first announced in late 2006. The banks created the new mutual holding company, Butler Bancorp, in July 2007.
Burke said the banks have already begun consolidating some functions, including lending, and Bruno will continue the process over the next few months. She said bank officials are still determining exactly how many people will make the move, but she said it will be “not very many.”
Burke said the two banks originally decided to merge in the interest of providing larger loans to their customers. So far, she said, the relationship has worked out well.
“We thought it would be a god affiliation, and it has been great,” she said.
Marlborough Co-Operative bank was founded in 1890. It has $87 million in assets, according to the latest FDIC data. Butler Bank, which was founded in 1901, has $244 million.
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