Waco’s Sterling Trust eliminating 100 jobs

WACO – The local operations of Sterling Trust will move to Ohio, costing Waco nearly 100 jobs during the next few months.

All but a handful of the 106 people employed by Sterling Trust, 1101 Wooded Acres Dr., will receive their pink slips Aug. 1 or Nov. 1. Their work will be relocated to Westlake, Ohio, where Equity Trust is merging the functions of plants in Waco, and Berea and Elyria, Ohio.

The decision to combine operations at a 72,000-sf facility in Ohio “was truly an efficiency move,” said Jeff Kelley, chief operating officer at Sterling Trust, who will continue to oversee a small office of employees carrying out customer support and IT roles in Waco.

Equity Trust has more than doubled in size in recent years, thanks in part to the acquisition of Sterling Trust four years ago.

Kelley said staffers targeted to be laid off will have the option of relocating to Ohio or receiving a severance package that will vary with years of employment.

“This has been a very difficult situation, and we have been meeting one-on-one with employees, many of whom love what they do here,” Kelley said.

Equity Trust Co. acquired Sterling Trust in 2009 in a deal valued at $61.2 million. At the time, Sterling administered about $4.8 billion in assets in 72,800 accounts, according to United Western Bancorp, which sold the company to Equity and also said the company would remain in Waco.