First financial services institution to be selected in award's 43-year history

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Umpqua Bank's San Francisco flagship store received international recognition as the Retail Design Institute's 2013 Store of the Year and first place in the financial services category during the organization's annual International Store Design Awards. Umpqua's San Francisco store, designed in partnership with Huen of Portland, represents the first time a financial institution has received this recognition in the award's 43-year history.

"For nearly 20 years Umpqua has used our store concept to create a new approach to banking, one that reflects the communities we serve and invites people to use our stores as gathering places," said Lani Hayward, executive vice president of creative strategies for Umpqua Bank. "As consumer preferences and technologies change, so does the design of our stores. Our San Francisco location is the most recent example of how we're using design and technology in new ways to create a meaningful experience for our customers and communities, and it's an honor to receive this recognition."

The award was granted based on Umpqua's thoughtful use of physical design elements to enhance its innovative customer experience. Umpqua's approach offers customer amenities beyond banking, including open use of the store for events and meetings, unexpected conveniences like securely parking your bike (or borrowing theirs), and a prominently displayed phone that rings directly on the desk of the company's CEO.

"RDI's 'Store of the Year' award recognizes projects that best embody how design can be used as a tool to build brand awareness, trust and loyalty with customers, and Umpqua's San Francisco store does just that," commented James Farnell, president of RDI's Southern California Chapter & judging chair for the awards. "Their space uses technology to support a differentiated experience, while subtly layering in a number of memorable signature elements to maintain a personal connection - from their retro-designed phone to call the CEO, to a bicycle available for use by their customers. Our judges also appreciated the warm materials palette and disarming voice used in the environmental graphics - all of which position the bank as an accessible member of the community and give it a distinctive and human personality."

About the Store

Umpqua's San Francisco store, located at 450 Sansome Street, is designed to engage and build trust with both customers and the public, and to provide business owners with the tools, resources and interactive space they need to create and innovate. Highlights include:

  • Mobile Concierge - Umpqua's Mobile Concierge associates are able to service accounts, connect customers with subject experts, and even book one of the store's public conference rooms from anywhere in the store.
  • Catalyst Wall - This regularly updated, interactive digital "wall" engages and inspires while providing resources to take action. It features perspective and insights from a rotating selection of business game-changers, including TCHO Chocolates, new media pioneer Tina Sharkey and Umpqua's own community responsibility innovator, Nicole Stein. Visitors can explore financial and business goals and products as well as a collection of in-house and curated mobile apps.
  • Catalyst Series - Umpqua's Catalyst Series makes use of the store's open design, hosting quarterly events with innovators who are shaping new categories and ways of approaching business. The next event is open to the public and features Mark Dwight, founder and CEO of Rickshaw Bagworks and founder of SFMADE, who will speak Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 6pm. Learn more and RSVP at: www.umpquabank.com/sf/catalyst.
  • Demo Bar - Showcases products from featured businesses and serves as a hub for demonstrations of all kinds, from financial products and services to coffee and chocolate tastings.
  • Spark Resource Center - Designed for businesses and individuals to connect, collaborate and be inspired, this space includes publicly available iPads loaded with a curated collection of inspiration and innovative thinking, device charging stations and cell phone chat chairs to make impromptu phone calls private.
  • Data Research Station - Provides San Francisco businesses with access to proprietary and public industry and consumer information providing insight into consumer trends and related business ideas.
  • Exchange Rooms - These flexible rooms are available to all. Umpqua associates use them to meet with clients and small groups can "rent" the rooms for free to deliver presentations, hold a virtual meeting on Skype or simply gather their team.

About Umpqua Bank

Umpqua Bank, headquartered in Roseburg, Ore., is a subsidiary of Umpqua Holdings Corporation with locations between California's Central Coast and the Puget Sound, along the Oregon and Northern California Coast, and in Central Oregon and Northern Nevada. Umpqua Bank has been recognized for its innovative customer experience and banking strategy by national publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fast Company and CNBC. The company has been recognized for the past eight years in a row on FORTUNE magazine's list of the country's "100 Best Companies to Work For," and was recently named by The Portland Business Journal the Most Admired Financial Services Company in Oregon for the ninth consecutive year.

Umpqua Holdings also owns a retail brokerage subsidiary, Umpqua Investments, Inc., which offers services through Umpqua Bank stores and in dedicated offices throughout Oregon, and Financial Pacific Leasing, a nationally-recognized commercial finance company that provides equipment leases to small businesses. Umpqua's Wealth Management Division serves high net worth individuals and nonprofits by providing customized financial solutions and offerings. Umpqua Holdings Corporation is headquartered in Portland, Ore.http://www.umpquabank.com.

About Huen

Huen shapes experiences for brands through strategy, environmental and communication design, Huen's work weaves its clients' brand stories into seamless, evocative and sensory experiences projecting a point of difference, a purpose, strategic position, and reasons to purchase, consider or believe. Founded in 2010 by Rebecca Huston and Craig Wollen, the firm's extensive body of work includes strategy and design projects for adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Nike, DICK's Sporting Goods, Sephora, Sony Playstation, Teva and Umpqua Bank. For more, visit http://www.huenspace.com.

for Umpqua Bank
Tom Biro, 206-686-6420 or 862-485-0711
tom@allisonpr.com

Source: Umpqua Bank

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