Last Friday, dignitaries gathered for the official ribbon-cutting of a new $1 million corporate headquarters Turner's company -- Tangarine Concepts. Corp. -- has opened in the city's west end.

The company, which provides a wide range of debit card and credit card financial services to some 8,000 Canadian companies, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tangarine Payments Solutions Corp., a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The company, which has about 30 sales and marketing staff at the new head office and about 60 employees in total, was until recently located in leased office space on Carlton Street.

Politicians and economic development officials praised Turner at the ribbon cutting for having the new 5,500-square-foot headquarters constructed on Commerce Place, saying the company is one of countless small- and medium-sized businesses that have become the so-called backbone of the Ontario economy.

St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, Ontario's Minister of Transportation, said it's the huge corporations that typically generate headlines. But in reality smaller companies like Tangarine "tend to swamp the larger companies" in terms of economic impact, he said.

"You're the future kind of business," he said. The fact the company decided it was time to move to a larger, owned headquarters is proof of that, Bradley said.

"It's always good to hear when you've outgrown a location."

Mayor Brian McMullan thanked Turner for the investment in the city.

"You're supporting local families and allowing them to raise families," he said. "We think it's invaluable."

Turner said looking back to his company's humble roots on James Street, "we've come a long way."

Tangarine, which started out mainly with automatic banking machines, competes with multibillion-dollar banks, providing such services as technology to process debit and credit card transactions and e-commerce products to run online companies or websites. The company presently processes more than 2.5 million credit card and debit card transactions a month for companies across Canada.

It also offers its retail customers, such as convenience stores, bars, restaurants, gas stations and small specialty stores, services such as pre-paid gift cards and loyalty programs that they couldn't otherwise afford.

Turner said it can cost a small store upwards of $25,000 for the technology for pre-paid gifts cards, but his company can provide them for as little as 75 cents each.

Compared to the big banks, Tangarine is still small: Turner said his company has about 1.5 per cent of the debit card business.

"There's a lot of room for growth," he said.

Turner, who has a home and family here, said he couldn't think of a better place to invest in.

"It's one of the nicest places in Canada."