Lockport Savings Bank investing in Erie County.

Lockport Savings Bank is launching a major two-pronged growth strategy that, for the first time in its 125-year history, includes a plan to acquire other banks in Western New York.

At the same time, a scheduled opening of five new branch offices in suburban Buffalo during the next two years - the second leg of the growth formula - will give the Lockport bank almost twice as many branches in Erie County than in Niagara County, its home base.

When enacted, the strategy will open a new era in which Lockport Savings Bank will:

* Keep headquarters in Niagara County, though a majority of branch office operations will be outside of its home county

* Grow internally and through acquisitions that will drive assets for the first time across the $1 billion threshold, probably in 1996.

In expanding, Lockport Savings Bank is …