Retailer Daily

L.L. Bean Will Lay Off Up to 250

Outdoor specialty retailer L.L. Bean, Inc. will lay off between 200 and 240 employees at its Maine corporate headquarters this year, as well as about 12 store-level employees, in the wake of an 8% drop in annual revenue. According to Layoff Tracker, Chris McCormick, president and CEO of L.L. Bean, sent the retailer's 5,400 employees a letter saying voluntary retirements offered in February helped the company's struggling financial position, but not enough to avoid layoffs. L.L. Bean also does not anticipate a sales turnaround this year strong enough to sustain current employee levels. News of layoffs at L.L. Bean first surfaced last month. According to the Associated Press, an internal memo released to L.L. Bean employees by McCormick on March 9, 2009 said an unspecified layoffs would be necessary this year after the privately-held company’s annual revenue dropped for only the third time since 1960. The memo said that revenues for fiscal 2008 were down about 8%, or $1.5 billion, from fiscal 2007 revenues of roughly $19 billion. In the memo, McCormick further said he was “cautiously optimistic" that voluntary retirement incentives would reduce the number of layoffs required. All of L.L. Bean’s full-time and part-time employees were to receive a $330 bonus, according to the Associated Press report. This news came not long after L.L. Bean was named as the retailer providing the best customer service in the fourth annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice Survey, conducted by BIGresearch. L.L. Bean operates 15 stores in the US, as well as catalog and e-commerce operations.