CHRONICLE COLUMN – A LOCAL BUSINESS SUCCESS STORY
Heritage Bank is one of Toowoomba’s largest and longest running businesses, a Toowoomba Chamber Hall of Fame recipient, which continues to play an extremely important role in the community life of our region.
With its origins right here in Toowoomba in 1875, they are not only a major employer of people in the Toowoomba region, both in its CBD Head Office and in its branch network, but also a major supporter of many community events, such as the Toowoomba Show and the Carnival of Flowers.
They are a wonderful local business success story and their contribution to our region, celebrated.
At the last Business@Dusk in 2022, we got hear the great news for Toowoomba from Heritage, Chief Executive Officer Peter Lock, that Heritage continues to build on its proud history with a number of extremely exciting initiatives currently underway. The most significant of those is its merger with Adelaide-based People’s Choice Credit Union, which was approved at a vote of members in November. The merged organisation will become Australia’s largest customer-owned financial institution, with $23 billion in assets, 720,000 customers and 1800 staff. It will offer a dynamic customer-owned alternative to the major banks, based right here in Toowoomba. The merger agreement includes a commitment to maintaining dual Head Offices – one in Toowoomba and one in Adelaide – as well as a commitment to no branch closures as a result of the merger. Subject to final regulatory approvals, the organisations will officially merge on 1 March 2023.
The Heritage commitment to Toowoomba
This was further highlighted late last year when Peter announced the other extremely sensational news that it would be building a brand-new Head Office building in the Toowoomba CBD. Work to find a suitable location is still progressing. The goal is for the new building to provide state-of-the-art facilities for staff that make the building a great place to work but also fit the demands of the post-COVID working environment. The new Head Office building will be fantastic news for the vibrancy of inner-city Toowoomba, a core goal of the Toowoomba Chamber CBD Revitalisation Advisory Committee and create exciting job opportunities for the local community.
In 2020, Heritage further cemented its commitment to local business with the opening of the new dedicated Business Banking centre at the Ruthven Street Head Office. Dedicated to supporting our business community. Their team of Business Bankers continues to grow, we know, they are proud to assist business owners to acquire finance for the growth and nourishment of their business enterprises.
The Toowoomba Chamber is very proud of Heritage Bank and its support and contribution to the Toowoomba business community and Toowoomba residents for nearly 150 years. I know, after hearing from Peter on Wednesday night, that they too are proud to play a very strong role in both the business and community life of the wider Toowoomba region.
