Vestis Group Names New Ceo

Vestis Retail Group (Meriden, Conn.), which includes the Bob’s Stores footwear chain and the Eastern Mountain Sports outdoor retailing chain, has named James Petty as its new ceo, part of a planned management succession.

Petty succeeds Mark Walsh, who is a managing director of Versa Capital Management LLC (Philadelphia), which owns Vestis. Walsh will remain chairman of the retail group.

Petty was most recently president of retail stores for Carter's Inc. (Atlanta). He previously held senior roles at Limited Too (Columbus, Ohio) and Gap Inc. (San Francisco). He will be based in Vestis’s Connecticut headquarters.