After nearly a half-century of building up its business in and around Brandon, Westoba Credit Union is ready for Winnipeg.
The sixth-largest credit union in the province is preparing to cut the ribbon on a new 4,200-square-foot branch on Portage Avenue and another one in a renovated Red Lobster restaurant on Pembina Highway.
Don Cataford, Westoba's vice-president of business development for Winnipeg and the surrounding area, said the offspring of many of its mostly rural client base are increasingly moving to the big city but still want to maintain ties to their home financial institution.
Westoba just opened another branch in Onanole near Clear Lake, too. Cataford said the move was in response to a growing number of its members in the area north of Brandon who asked for a branch.
"It's a very dynamic area. It's very populated from spring through to fall," he said.
Although the vast majority of Winnipeggers associated Westoba with the western part of Manitoba, it staked out a beachhead in the capital in 2008 with a commercial centre. Its business was primarily in residential mortgages and with industrial warehouses, motels and strip malls.
"We have quite a large piece of business in Winnipeg, between $140 million and $150 million. We look at this as expanding our presence in Winnipeg," he said.
from Western Investor February 2012
