Donald F. McCullough, chairman and chief executive...

Donald F. McCullough, chairman and chief executive of Wickes Cos.’ Collins & Aikman unit, will retire next Jan. 31 after 41 years with the textile company.

The retirement of McCullough, 62, has “absolutely no connection” with the carpet problems at a Collins & Aikman unit in Dalton, Ga., that Wickes disclosed last April, according to Edmund M. Kaufman, a Wickes director.

“It was always understood that (McCullough) would stay real active for a year or so and bring in his successors,” Kaufman said.

Alfred S. Crimmins, 53, now Collins & Aikman’s president and chief operating officer, will become chairman and CEO at McCullough’s retirement.

Wickes revealed three months ago that the Dalton unit, which accounts for about 10% of Collins & Aikman’s $1.1 billion in sales, had for years submitted phony test results to commercial customers and that an undetermined amount of carpeting did not meet certain local safety standards. In the wake of the scandal, four employees were fired.

Kaufman said Wickes is “just chugging along” on its investigation into the scope of the problem but does not yet have an estimate of how much it will cost Wickes to replace substandard carpeting or otherwise cover any liability. Analysts recently have put the cost at about $200 million.

The troubled Dalton unit recently installed a new president, Charles R. Eitel, 37, who has worked for several years at carpet companies in the area and is highly regarded in the industry. Eitel replaced Brook Johnson, who served as interim president of the Dalton unit and is now back at his post of president of Collins & Aikman’s specialty products group in New York.