Cleve­land, Ohio. The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, the largest provider of har­bor tow­ing and ship assist ser­vices on the U.S. Great Lakes, and Civista Bank, announced the com­pa­nies have entered into a new com­mer­cial bank­ing relationship.

The new facil­i­ties include a term loan and a revolv­ing line of cred­it with greater avail­abil­i­ty, reduced inter­est and increased flex­i­bil­i­ty to sup­port the Com­pa­ny’s day-to-day oper­a­tions and strate­gic growth ini­tia­tives. The Com­pa­ny plans to use the funds for gen­er­al work­ing cap­i­tal and future rev­enue growth across its base.

“Work­ing with the Civista team has been a tru­ly amaz­ing expe­ri­ence,” said George Sogor, Exec­u­tive VP & CFO of Great Lakes Tow­ing. “The team’s under­stand­ing of our busi­ness allowed us to close the trans­ac­tion quick­ly and effi­cient­ly. As our orga­ni­za­tion evolves and grows, we required a strate­gic bank­ing team that has the flex­i­bil­i­ty to sup­port our oper­a­tions and ini­tia­tives. But more than that, we need­ed a part­ner that will stand beside us, through the cycli­cal and sea­son­al ups and downs that define the com­mer­cial ship­ping and ship­yard industries.”

Joe Star­ck, the company’s pres­i­dent said, “As a small com­pa­ny, we must be able to respond quick­ly when oppor­tu­ni­ties arise.  Civista is an ‘up and com­er’ in on the bank­ing scene in North­east Ohio and has proven its abil­i­ty to do just that.  They will become inte­gral to our strate­gies, in both the tow­ing and ship­yard mar­kets.  We appre­ci­ate their con­fi­dence in our busi­ness, our team and our mar­ket position.”

“The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny is a sol­id, Cleve­land-based busi­ness, estab­lished by John D. Rock­e­feller in 1899,” said Joe Man­no, VP of Civista Bank based in its new West­lake Office.  “With a proven track record of its abil­i­ty to mus­cle through 118-years of change, we are con­fi­dent in their busi­ness mod­el and look for­ward to work­ing with them.” Bob Kat­i­tus, Civista’s Region­al Mar­ket Exec­u­tive added, ”We are very pleased to have been able to com­plete such sig­nif­i­cant financ­ing that will enable Great Lakes the finan­cial flex­i­bil­i­ty to con­tin­ue their efforts to shore up their fleet renew­al activ­i­ties, while also meet­ing long-term growth objec­tives.” 

About Civista Bank 
Civista Bank is the bank­ing sub­sidiary of Civista Banc­shares, Inc., a finan­cial hold­ing com­pa­ny with assets of approx­i­mate­ly $1.4 bil­lion head­quar­tered in San­dusky, Ohio.  As a full-ser­vice finan­cial insti­tu­tion, Civista serves the needs of con­sumer, busi­ness, mort­gage, and wealth man­age­ment cus­tomers.  Branch­es are locat­ed through­out Cham­paign, Craw­ford, Erie, Franklin, Huron, Logan, Madi­son, Mont­gomery, Ottawa, Rich­land, and Sum­mit coun­ties and two loan pro­duc­tion offices in Cuya­hoga Coun­ty. Learn more at www.civistabank.com.

About The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny & Great Lakes Shipyard

Great Lakes Ship­yard is a full-ser­vice ship­yard for new ves­sel con­struc­tion includ­ing new work­boats and barges, truck­able prod­ucts, cus­tom fab­ri­ca­tion, ship main­te­nance and repairs, in a world-class facil­i­ty that includes state-of-the-art equip­ment such as a 770-ton mobile Trav­elift and a 300-ton float­ing dry­dock. GLS facil­i­ties are locat­ed at the Company’s head­quar­ters on the Old Riv­er Chan­nel of the Cuya­hoga Riv­er in Cleve­land, Ohio. GLT’s ship­yard exper­tise includes design­ing, build­ing and main­tain­ing its own fleet, as well as an exten­sive list of com­mer­cial and gov­ern­ment tug­boats, sup­ply boats, fer­ries, barges, cruise boats, large yachts, and many oth­er types of ves­sels, includ­ing larg­er domes­tic and for­eign car­go ves­sels. The ship­yard is a major con­trac­tor for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, EPA, and many oth­er fed­er­al, state and local gov­ern­ments, attest­ing to its high-qual­i­ty work­man­ship, on-time per­for­mance, and com­pet­i­tive pric­ing. Learn more at www.greatlakesshipyard.com. Great Lakes Ship­yard is a divi­sion of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, an indus­try leader since 1899, pro­vid­ing essen­tial, com­mer­cial tug­boat ser­vices such as har­bor assist and tow­ing, ice­break­ing and car­go trans­porta­tion in more than 35 U.S. ports, in all 8 U.S. Great Lakes’ states, includ­ing Ohio, Michi­gan, Illi­nois, Indi­ana, Min­neso­ta, Wis­con­sin, Penn­syl­va­nia, New York, and the St. Lawrence Riv­er. Learn more at www.thegreatlakestowingcompany.com.

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Con­tact

Joseph P. Star­ck, Jr., Pres­i­dent, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company

Tel: 216–367-8126

E‑mail: jps@thegreatlakesgroup.com