Community to profit from bank’s success

By Melissa Donchi
THE Upper Yarra community branches of the Bendigo Bank have thanked the local communities for their support by sharing its profits.
Woori Yallock’s Community Bank recently announced a gross profit of $63,097 for the last financial year and is now set to reward its shareholders.
Board chairman Rick Shaw described the bank as a ‘quiet achiever’ and said dividends of five cents per share will be sent to shareholders in the first week of March.
The shareholders, who are as young as school age and as old as retirement age, are set to profit from the bank’s success which only opened its doors to the public some three years ago.
“It was important for us to reward our shareholders as soon as possible,” Mr Shaw said. “Some might think that our progress has been slow but you actually make a loss when you first open the door, then after a year or two you might break even and then after that you start to make a profit,” he said.
“We are paying this dividend in recognition of the support the shareholders have provided both in start-up capital and banking commitment. While we have not yet fully recovered the losses incurred in the start up of our branch, we achieved a sound profit in 2006 and are looking at a stronger position in this year’s profit forecast.” Mr Shaw said.
Mr Shaw said while it was important to reward shareholders, the bank has also been rewarding the community through sponsoring its projects.
“Last year we spent in excess of $10,000 on sponsorship grants for the community,” he said.
The sponsorships have been for sporting clubs, primary schools and scouts as well as special projects with the Upper Yarra Secondary College, such as the student trip to the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.
Mr Shaw said the bank had reached a point where it was making consistent profits and that share dividends should only increase with time.
“Each year we expect our profits to increase and we will continue to reward our shareholders and the community accordingly,” Mr Shaw said.
Meanwhile, the Community Access Mental Health Alliance (CAMHA) in Yarra Junction is the latest group to receive financial support from the Warburton Community Bank® branch of Bendigo Bank.
CAMHA’s community support worker Jack Mulholland said the $8,000 grant would make a huge difference to the centre’s strength based training and exercise program.
“This grant will assist us to implement activities that can make a big difference in people’s lives,” Mr Mulholland said, “We’re extremely grateful to the Warburton Community Bank for their support.”