Country expanding throughout Chicago and its neighborhoods

CHICAGO—Country Insurance & Financial Services has moved into the Chicago market, opening a new district office in downtown Chicago.

Michael Fisher, who most recently was market president for Harris Bank N.A.'s south suburban Chicago market, will manage the Chicago district office as director of new market development for Bloomington, Ill.-based Country.

Country also plans to open branch offices in Chicago's Beverly, Bridgeport and Clearing neighborhoods this year, and plans to have 20 Chicago offices with approximately 100 employees serving the city by 2009.

The move is the first time the company has done business in Chicago in its 80-year history. In recent years, Country has been following a strategy of gradually expanding from its traditional base in small-town and suburban Illinois into other markets around the United States.

Country currently does business in 14 Midwestern and western states, and already has 80 offices in the Chicago area that serve 60 communities in the region.