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Richmond’s Union First Market opens seven branches in western Va.

July 12, 2011
By Louis Llovio / Richmond Times-Dispatch

Union First Market Bank expanded its Virginia partnership with Martin's Food Markets by opening branches Monday in seven of the grocer's stores.

All seven of the new branches are inside stores in the western part of the state, including two in Winchester and one each in Staunton, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Culpeper and Stephens City.

This brings the total number of Union First Market branches inside Martin's stores to 29.

The bank also has a branch inside a Walmart in Tappahannock.

Some of the seven Martin's stores had branches operated by a different bank, but those locations had been closed for a while, a Martin's spokesman said.

"Union is uniquely positioned to grow and is the only community bank with operations in Virginia's top seven banking markets," said G. William Beale, chief executive officer of Union First Market Bankshares, the bank's parent company.

Union First Market and Martin's have worked together for a little more than a year, but their predecessor companies have a long, intertwined history.

Martin's parent company bought 25 Virginia stores — 24 in the Richmond area and one in Williamsburg — last year from Ukrop's Super Markets. Many of the former Ukrop's stores had First Market Bank branches.

The majority owner of First Market Bank had been Ukrop's Super Markets and the Ukrop family. The grocery chain created the bank in 1997.

Union First Market was created with last year's merger of First Market Bank with Union Bankshares.

"We have a good relationship with Union First Market and we will continue to look for opportunities to work with them in the future," Martin's spokesman Christopher Brand said.

The seven new branches have created more than 30 jobs, the bank said.

Richmond-based Union First Market has 99 branches throughout Virginia.

 

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

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