St George commences five-branch WA rollout

St George Bank plans to open five new branches in Western Australia, the company has announced, after the opening of the bank's Fremantle outlet last night.

The new branches include retail and commercial sites at Kewdale, Mandurah, Bunbury and Joondalup.

The full text of a company announcement is pasted below

St.George Bank has commenced its geographical expansion into Western Australia with the opening of a new Commercial and Retail branch in Fremantle last night.

Pieter Bergshoeff, Senior Manager for the new Fremantle branch said that business investment in the area had risen substantially and the opening of the new branch reflects St.George's continued commitment to the Western Australia region.

"WA is the fastest growing Australian state with growth of 10.2% in the year to March 2007. This is off the back of a continuing resources boom, which has filtered through to the rest of the Western Australian economy."

Mr Bergshoeff continued, "Retail turnover also continues to post solid growth and business investment and population growth are fuelling WA's continued projected growth in forthcoming years. The opening of our new Fremantle branch reflects this strong economic growth and our continued commitment to support customers in this growing WA region."

The new Fremantle branch is located at 21 Adelaide Street and will initially employ ten staff with additional staff recruited to support the new centre. The location was chosen because of the growing influence of Fremantle as a business centre in Perth.

"Not only is Fremantle the largest metropolitan retail centre outside of Perth, but it also services commercial hubs at Kwinana, O'Connor and Henderson. Fremantle also has a significant advantage in that it links to all major arterials with $18 billion in trade finance traded through its port last year," said Mr Bergshoeff.

The opening of the Fremantle branch is the first of five new WA branches that St.George is planning to open over the next month. The new branches include Retail and Commercial sites at Kewdale, Mandurah, Bunbury and Joondalup.

Martin Barrett, General Manager for WA said that the Bank's geographical expansion into WA would position St.George as an effective alternative to the major banks.

"Coupled with our existing footprint in Perth CBD, the opening of five additional branches in Western Australia will mean greater accessibility to branches, ATMs, business banking products & services and specialist advice for institutional, corporate and business customers. This full service offering for customers will significantly increase levels of convenience and further enhance our service delivery," said Mr Barrett.