Maui Divers Jewelry President and CEO Bob Taylor will retire at the end of the year after 35 years with the kamaaina company.

Taylor, 66, who will continue as a director and stockholder at Maui Divers, recruited Mary Beth Brenner, the current executive vice president, a year ago as his successor.

"There’s a little bit of mixed feelings, but it’s time to move on to the next phase of my life," Taylor said. "I’m happy it’s all working out. I found a really phenomenal replacement for myself."

He plans to play more golf, spend more time with family and travel with his wife, and is pleased that he will leave Maui Divers in a strong financial position despite years of economic ups and downs.

"It was important to me that the company be doing well when I leave, and we turned the corner really the middle of last year after going through the recession," he said. "We’re growing again. Our business is strong and we’re profitable."

In fact, the business has recorded profits in all of Taylor’s 13 years as CEO.

"Over my whole 35-year career there’s been many ups and downs that have affected travel retail," he said. "A great majority of our sales are to visitors coming to Hawaii, so we’ve had to endure airline strikes, a Gulf War, SARS — we’ve been affected by many negative factors but we learned to adjust very quickly when it looks like there’s going to be a prolonged downturn. We are quick to reduce expenses so that we can remain profitable."

More recently, the jeweler has had to adjust to rapid increases in the price of gold, introducing silver merchandise and reducing gold content in many of its best-selling items.

Taylor joined Maui Divers in 1972 as controller after working with the company while at an accounting firm, now known as KPMG. He later left Maui Divers from 1983 to 1987 to work at Tropical Rent A Car and Foremost Dairies.

He was named Maui Divers president in 1993 and CEO in 1999 and said his biggest accomplishment has been leading the company’s expansion from five stores in 1999 to 56 today. The company is projecting annual sales of approximately $56 million, up from nearly $49 million in 2010, he said.

Brenner most recently has led Maui Divers retail operations, merchandising, marketing, manufacturing and design. She has more than 25 years of retail experience.

Maui Divers, the state’s largest jewelry manufacturer and retailer, was founded in 1959 and has more than 500 employees, up from 100 in 1999. 

It operates on the four major Hawaiian Islands, as well as in California and Guam, and hopes to eventually expand to other areas on the mainland and Asia.