Talbots’s top exec announces retirement plans

Talbots Inc. has announced that Arnold B. Zetcher, chairman, president and CEO plans to retire as CEO and president at the end of the current fiscal year, Feb. 2, 2008. Talbots is No. 88 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Zetcher, who has been with Talbots for 20 years, will remain as chairman of the board through March 2008.

Talbots’s board of directors has appointed a search committee to select a successor. It has retained Heidrick & Struggles to assist the committee.

During Zetcher’s tenure, the company has grown from a privately held company with 109 stores to a $2.2 billion publicly traded company with 1,364 stores throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K, a web site and a catalog. It bought the J. Jill brand last year.