When you enter Allagash Brewing Company, you are greeted with a whiff of hops sweetly brewing and a mountain of beer cases rising to the ceiling of the warehouse. Owner Rob Tod is friendly and approachable, although obviously very busy. Once a one-man operation, Allagash Brewing Company has now grown to employ ten, and according to Rob, it's a lot of work for only ten people.

The beer is brewed exclusively in the Belgian style, which means it includes unique ingredients like special spices, and the most important part of the process is the yeast strains. Belgian-style beer tastes very different from other beers.

And the market for that taste is rapidly growing. Allagash beer is now distributed in 21 states - from its operations right here in Portland, Maine. When the time came to expand operations at Allagash Brewing, Rob looked at several banks for his financing. “I wasn't necessarily looking for a smaller bank, but I was looking for something more personal,” says Rob, “Bath Savings is more responsive to me.”

Rob's financial advisor suggested that he contact Bath Savings. And he says once he met them, it was a “no-brainer.” Service was very important to him and BSI had what he wanted. Not only were the people at the bank available to him, they also provided quick responses through email and telephone. Rob says he learned his lesson after banking with another financial institution. “Rate is not the driving force. BSI had a competitive rate and their service was far superior. Sometimes I need to be able to reach my banker and get a quick answer. Bath Savings provides that to me, and I like the fact that my loan officer drops by my business to see how things are going.”

A Taste for Personal Service

Allagash Brewing Company
Portland

“Timing is everything,” Marcia Feller said when asked how she started Couleur Collection in Falmouth. “It was February, 2000. All anyone wanted to talk about was the future of dot.coms, and here I was with a business plan for a ladies' retail clothing store. Some investors were initially excited and then they just sort of wandered off. I stayed enthused, but I was getting a bit gun-shy about the idea of presenting my plan to a bank.”

Then Marcia remembered meeting Geoff Gattis from Bath Savings when they were in a trade group that went to the Ukraine as part of Project Harmony. As a favor, Marcia asked Geoff to critique her business plan. He read it overnight and called Marcia the next day, just as enthused as she was. He said it was one of the best business plans he'd ever seen and that Bath Savings wanted to do the whole thing. BSI has been involved every step of the way since then - as an experienced, knowledgeable partner to Couleur Collection, through thick and thin. And that means being supportive of a 10-month-old retail clothing business in the days after 9/11.

As the company's needs have grown, Bath Savings' support has grown too. Marcia is able to do all her banking with BSI - personal and business. And Marcia's business concept is so strong that she could easily imagine many possibilities for the future, and has no doubt in her mind that Bath Savings would be right there by her side. “They are that supportive,” Marcia explains, “and they really know who we are, personally and professionally. Here's an example: they felt so strongly about what we do here that they nominated us for The Governor's Award for Business Excellence. And we won! I think BSI was as proud as we were.”

Showing True Couleurs

Couleur Collection, Falmouth