HR a catalyst for business change at LL Bean

Despite recording more than $1 billion in annual sales world‐wide, LL Bean faces the pressures of all major retailers – competition, fluctuating sales, overcapacity in the sector and potential squeezes on margins. The business is one of the world’s best‐known brands in outdoor sports and mail‐order catalog retailing. Its Freeport flagship store draws more than 3.5 million visitors a year and some 15 million toll‐free catalog calls are received, to place orders from 16,000 stock lines. Online retailing began in 1996.