Retirement suited Larry Petru, but going back to work in the acquiring business suits him even better. As soon as his two-year noncompete clause expired earlier this year, Petru, 65, started another independent sales organization.
“Being retired the past two years has been great, but I have missed the fun and excitement that comes in working with great salespeople,” Petru says.
Petru calls his new Houston-based company Redstone Payment Solutions. A bank in his area used to use the name Redstone, and these days a popular local golf course carries the name. For Petru, the name also suggests a strong foundation.
Petru’s three sons, Greg, Rich and Tim, all Texas A&M grads, followed him into the acquiring business and built a large sales organization, he says. They take to the streets to sell and also operate a large telemarketing organization.
The sons plan to join Redstone this summer, when their contract runs out with their father’s old ISO, which is now called Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions. “My three sons are very close to each other, and it will be great working with them as a team,” Petru says.
In 2001, Petru sold what was then called Merchants’ Choice Card Services to the sponsoring bank, Woodforest National Bank in Woodlands, Texas. Petru agreed to stay on for a couple of years and found himself still there eight years later.
The holding company spun the ISO out as a separate entity in 2006, and new management changed the name to include the word “solutions” when Petru left the company.
Today, Petru is settling into a building with freeway access on two-and-a-half acres that he and his sons bought three years ago. He says he was in and out of the place during retirement.
Petru shares the offices with a six-member staff, some of whom he brought out of retirement. “I was able to bring the old team back together,” he says. Petru has rehired his former chief financial officer and his old information-technology and risk colleagues.
“We’ve got a strong management foundation because of the people who have been in this business a lot of years,” he says. “It’s comforting. I’m not doing this in a vacuum and having to train new people.”
That crew will compete with Petru’s former ISO. No one at that company, Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions, was immediately available for comment.
Petru started Delta Card Services, which conducted business as Merchants’ Choice Card Services, in January 1994 with two associates who ran a marketing company for card issuers, including Dallas-based Texas Independent Bank. His associates also were performing back-office operations, including customer service and risk, for Family Bank in Illinois.
Merchant’s Choice grew from zero to more than 50,000 merchants across the United States, Petru recalls. “We probably had 200 sales offices out there at any one time that were writing business for us,” he says. Starting with a few deals a day, the ISO built its volume to 800 deals a month.
Retiring in 2009, Petru spent more time on the golf course but missed his co-workers and wanted to stay busy. His current project is capping a career that began with 23 years in the banking business, including stints as president of three different banks.
Today, old competitors are calling Petru to wish him well in his new venture, he says. “It’s great to be back in the game again,” Petru notes.
And what might the future hold? “We’re out now trying to solicit new sales organizations with the hopes of building a very large portfolio again,” he says.
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