No quick changes anticipated at L.L. Bean

FREEPORT – L.L. Bean’s new president and chief executive officer says not to expect any radical changes in the near future.

The outdoors outfitter just undertook a series of changes three years ago that added new products and catalogs and launched construction of stores in mid-Atlantic states, said Chris McCormick.

McCormick, who succeeds L.L. Bean’s grandson, Leon Gorman, wants to give that effort a chance before trying something new.

McCormick said he would follow the path laid by Gorman by focusing the company on three major areas – mail order, retail and e-commerce – as well as diversifying the company’s current product lines.

“When you look at the company that way, it’s diversified not only by channel but also by product line, which mitigates a lot of risk in the marketplace,” he said. “That’s a good strategy to have, so I’m just going to build on that. That means we’re going to continue to open retail stores.”

McCormick sees the introduction of new retail stores in the Northeast as the biggest growth opportunity for the company. While Bean will still invest in its catalogs, Internet transactions have taken a bite out of those sales and more attention will be paid to the online part of the business.

Although McCormick will be the first nonfamily member to run L.L. Bean, he is not new to family owned businesses. His father was an entrepreneur who started a commercial packaging business and expected all six of his sons to help out.

But McCormick, at least initially, didn’t intend to become a businessman himself when he entered Fairfield University in Connecticut in the 1970s.

“I went into college thinking that I was going to be in pre-med. I have five brothers, and my oldest brother is a doctor. I quickly found out at Fairfield that chemistry and biology were really hard courses,” he said, laughing.

He changed his major to psychology, thinking it would give him a broad foundation he could use in business or perhaps in a counseling career. Instead, after graduation, he decided he wanted to try law school.

“I got turned down at every law school I applied to,” he said, “and looking back that was more a blessing, I think, than anything else.”

Plan B was business, and he went to work for Gardenway, a mail-order garden supply company in Vermont.

Then a kind of serendipity struck. He was looking through the Sunday Boston Globe classifieds one day and saw an ad for an assistant advertising manager at L.L. Bean in Freeport. He typed up a rough resume and mailed it. Three days later, destiny called.

He joined the company in 1983, and found himself being promoted every other year, learning a little more about the business with every new job. Along the way he developed a strong relationship with Leon Gorman, who mentored him by sending him notes or articles, or seeking out his opinion.

Gorman also tested him.

Three years ago, McCormick found himself in charge of Bean’s women’s clothing division, something he admits he knew nothing about. McCormick immediately surrounded himself with people he thought had good taste – and who knew the products – and he learned from them.

“It was a good experience because it put me in a situation where I had no knowledge,” he said. “I knew basic business principles, but Leon sort of threw me in the deep end to see what I could do. And that was a good learning experience.”