On hand to recognize Citizens Financial Group as the “New England
Regional Lender of the Year,” Fred Hochberg, deputy administrator of the
U.S. Small Business Administration, last week discovered what Rhode
Islanders have known all along, that there is a unique spirit here among
small businesses.
Nowhere was that spirit more evident than at Style, Inc., a Providence-
based manufacturer and importer of fashion jewelry. Style, Inc. has
grown dramatically in each of the past four years, using SBA loans —
secured through Citizens Bank — to fuel that growth.
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Chad Mollica, Style’s Inc.’s president, said the company is doing $4 to
$5 million in sales. The 25 employees at the four-year-old Style, Inc.
focus on designing costume jewelry. At a time when Rhode Island’s
costume jewelry industry has seen more businesses close than open,
Style, Inc. has thrived.
“Four years ago we were just a dream,” said Mollica. “We started a
costume jewelry company when the climate was bad. Getting financing was
not an easy task, but we went straight to Citizens Bank and the SBA.”
The confidence that Citizens Bank and the SBA showed in Mollica has been
well placed.
“We’ve doubled our sales every year, doubled our employees and doubled
our fun,” Mollica said.
Style, Inc. counts Disney, Sears and Target among its customers.
Hochberg said Style, Inc. represents the kind of impact a small business
can have on a local economy.
“Of the 25 employees, 24 were unemployed before coming here,” Hochberg
said. “That is exactly what small businesses do throughout America day
in and day out.”
For Citizens Bank (a $6 billion subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group),
it was the fourth consecutive year as the SBA’s number one lender in the
region. Citizens topped all Rhode Island lenders in both number of loans
and dollar amount, with 139 loans totaling $22 million. In all, the
Rhode Island SBA district office had 535 loan approvals totaling $100.8
million in fiscal year 1998.
In New England, Citizens Financial Group (a $17.2 billion financial
services company) approved 332 loans for $36.7 million in financing. The
U.S. SBA guaranteed loans for more than $635 million to nearly 3,300
small businesses in New England for fiscal year 1998.
Citizens Financial Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lawrence
K. Fish said that in an increasingly competitive and global world
marketplace, one of the greatest challenges to the banking industry is
helping small businesses. To Fish, securing loans for small businesses
need not be a complex endeavor.
“It’s not a complicated business,” said Fish. “A small businesses wants
simple documentation – and it wants money. One of the reasons we’ve done
well is that we’ve tried to keep this basic business simple. And we
service the heck out of people like Chad Mollica.”
Mark Formica, chairman, president and chief executive officer of
Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, said the bank made a conscious decision
in 1994 to increase its SBA loan activity. The results, he said, have
been rewarding. And Formica expects to build on the already record-
setting results.
“We’re still just scratching the surface,” Formica said. “I see this as
a launching pad for setting much higher goals and objectives for SBA
loans.”
That’s good news to Hochberg, who sees a bright future for entrepreneurs
throughout the United States. Hochberg dismisses the suggestion that the
American economy will soon take a turn for the worse. In fact, there
isn’t any evidence suggesting the economy will slow dramatically in
the foreseeable future, he said.
Small businesses, said Hochberg, no matter what they sell or service,
need simply to work hard and be efficient.
“Any small business needs to watch costs and focus on sales,” Hochberg
said.
