Cornely Exits Casual Male

NEW YORK – Joseph Cornely 3rd has resigned as executive vice president and director of store development for Casual Male Retail Group, the Canton, Mass.-based big & tall retail chain.

The company disclosed the resignation, effective Jan. 2, in a supplemental filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Cornely, 54 when the company filed its last annual proxy statement, has been with Casual Male for 34 years. He was promoted to his most recent post in 2003, the year after Casual Male was acquired by Designs Inc. The combined entity has since been renamed Casual Male Retail Group and is the largest operator of big & tall menswear stores in the U.S.

In late October, MRketplace.com reported that Casual Male was trimming the size of the San Francisco offices of its Rochester Big & Tall division and that divisional chief executive Robert Sockolov would be leaving as a result. Casual Male has yet to either confirm or deny those reports.

Rochester was acquired by CMRG two years ago for $20 million, including $5 million in assumed debt. The transaction also allowed for an earn-out provision of up to $4 million over a three-year period.

CMRG in recent years has exited its previous businesses with Ecko Unltd. and Levi’s/Dockers outlet stores and earlier this year changed its store nameplate to Casual Male XL from Casual Male Big & Tall.