Mercury Payment Systems chief executive Marc Katz is retiring after leading the Durango company through nearly a decade of strong growth.

Katz, 49, founded Mercury in 2001 with his brother, Jeffrey. Mercury now employs more than 300 workers and processes billions of dollars in credit card transactions annually.

Matt Taylor, chief operating officer, has been named CEO to succeed Marc Katz on Monday. Katz will become chairman of the board.

Katz said he will maintain his ownership stake in the company, along with Jeffrey Katz, Larry Stone and several small investors.

"It's just a good chance for me to have a breather," Marc Katz said.

Mercury Payment Systems is on track to process $14 billion in credit card transactions this year, up from $10.1 billion in 2008. It's the 26th largest credit card processing company in the country, and the fastest growing. The company declined to release its annual revenue.

Taylor said Mercury will remain in Durango, and he expects it to continue growing at double-digit rates for the next five years.

"We're a company that wants to stay in Durango," he said.

Economic development officials often point to Mercury as a model that Durango should seek to replicate.

The company's growth has been "phenomenal," said Ed Morlan, executive director of the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado.

"They just hit the right niche, they had a great idea, and they were able to pull all the pieces together," Morlan said.

Mercury took two loans that were facilitated by Region 9 at the company's formation, Katz said.

The company employs more than 300, including about 225 in Durango, 60 in Denver and 15 others in various locations. Mercury expects to have 340 to 350 workers by the end of 2009, Taylor said.

The Denver office, which started in 2006, has proved very successful, Taylor said.

"We've been able to recruit more effectively in Durango because of the Denver office," he said.

Some employees have moved from Durango to Denver and vice versa, he said.

Katz acknowledged that Mercury's growth has slowed because of the economic recession.

"The reality is, we're doing pretty well and still growing, and we'd be doing better if the economy was better," he said. "We saw merchants processing at lower-than-expected volume, and that affects us directly."

Mercury takes a tiny cut of every credit card transaction its 30,000 merchants process.

Restaurants make up about 45 percent of the company's customers, then specialty retail, grocery and convenience stores, pharmacies and others such as car washes and golf courses.

Katz, who was named Colorado Biz Magazine's 2006 Small Business CEO of the Year, said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

He said he has no plans for other business ventures, but left open the possibility that he would become more involved in the community.

Jeffrey Katz went on to start The Magellan Network, a Durango-based company that sells online restaurant reservation systems.

Marc Katz said Mercury would be in good hands with Taylor, a 34-year-old graduate of Fort Lewis College's business school who joined Mercury in 2003.

"What I was best at was getting it off the ground," Katz said.

"A 300-person company requires a different type of leadership, he said. "We built a real company with a real management team."

chuck@durangoherald.com