Des Peres, Mo.-Based Edward Jones Brokerage Looks to Europe for Expansion.

Byline: Patrick L. Thimangu

Nov. 27--Despite turbulence in global financial markets, Edward Jones is growing at home and in the United Kingdom. And it's looking at continental Europe as its next frontier.

The brokerage, known for bringing Wall Street to Main Street with an extensive network of one-broker offices, is expanding rapidly in the United Kingdom. In the past year, it has opened 34 new U.K. branches, bringing to 130 its offices there.

John Bachmann, the Des Peres-based firm's managing partner, says growth in the United Kingdom shows that the company's domestic model of focusing on serious individual investors and owners of small businesses works and that it can be exported overseas.

"Our approach is to go into communities and build personal relationships," Bachmann said. "We are finding the needs of folks in the U.K. are the same as the needs of most Americans."

Bachmann, who became managing partner in 1980 when Edward Jones had 309 offices, is the architect of the company's growth into …