Community Bank and Trust is closing 10 area branches, but officials say the bank won’t completely pull out of Northeast Georgia.

“We will be closing 10 locations in several different counties in Northeast Georgia,” said Bill Loyd, bank senior vice president. “But we will also be leaving at least one location open in each of those counties.”

Most of the branches to close are inside grocery stores. Locally, banks at Kroger grocery stores in Flowery Branch, Oakwood and Jefferson will close. Other locations to close are in Cleveland, Toccoa and Maysville.

The announcement comes two months after Community Bank and Trust was sold to South Carolina Bank and Trust of Orangeburg, S.C. After the sale, the South Carolina institution re-opened the banks under the original Community name.

“After the purchase, the No. 1 goal was getting (the banks) back to sound financial shape and profitability,” Loyd said. “To do that, we had to take a long, tough look at all of the banking locations.

“In some cases, we literally had some locations that were right next door to each other. We also looked at things like the volume of transactions.”

The closings will be staggered throughout the last week in May, Loyd said.

“In these 10 locations, very few people are losing their jobs,” he said. “We are trying to transfer them to a branch within their current market.”