FREEPORT – The grandson of L.L. Bean’s founder has stepped down as president and chief executive officer, turning over day-to-day control of the company to someone outside the family for the first time, the company said Monday.

Leon A. Gorman, who decided to step aside from the post he held since his grandfather’s death in 1967, will be succeeded by Chris McCormick, who has served as chief operating officer of the family owned company.

Gorman, the grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean, who founded the company 89 years ago, said McCormick is the best person for the job and that he shares the family’s values.

“The family is comfortable with Chris. The fact that he is not Leon Bean’s great-grandson is not germane,” said Gorman, whose three children chose not to work at L.L. Bean. “The core traditions of L.L. Bean are in good hands.”

McCormick, who has worked 18 years in various capacities at L.L. Bean, was instrumental in developing L.L. Bean’s international business, as well as guiding the company’s entry into e-commerce just six years ago.

“The way we’re viewing this is as a change of leadership. It’s not an announcement of Leon’s retirement,” said Rich Donaldson, the company’s spokesman, who noted that Gorman would stay on as chairman of the board.

Gorman will focus on corporate governance and long-term strategy.

“Therefore he’ll continue to play an active role in the company,” Donaldson said.

The announcement followed a vote of the company’s 10-member board of directors Friday. It was effective immediately.

Under Gorman’s leadership, L.L. Bean has grown from four catalogs, one store and $5 million in annual sales to a company with more than 50 catalogs, retail stores in the United States and Japan, and more than $1.1 billion in annual sales.

Gorman said he had been considering a change for some time and that this seemed to be the right time after the implementation of a number of changes since a 1996 review of the company’s position in the market.

Changes undertaken since then included an expansion into retail sales that goes well beyond the company’s flagship store in Freeport.

Last summer, L.L. Bean took the first step toward expanding its domestic retail presence beyond the 24-hour store Leon Leonwood Bean started on Freeport’s Main Street by opening a 75,000-square-foot store at the Tysons Corner Center mall in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Earlier this month, it opened a 30,000-square-foot store in Columbia, Md., and the company will open another store in the Philadelphia area next year.

The changes positioned L.L. Bean for sales growth of 4 percent to 5 percent when many retailers lost ground last year, and the company expects continued sales growth of 5 percent to 10 percent, Gorman said.

Gorman assured customers there will be no radical changes, although he said L.L. Bean will continue to look for ways to grow in a marketplace awash in catalogs and cluttered with retailers. That sounded like a sound strategy to Michael Faulkner, senior vice president of the Direct Marketers Association.

“I don’t know their strategy but it seems to me that, ‘If it ain’t broken, you don’t have to fix it.’ L.L. Bean has a great reputation,” Faulkner said in a telephone interview from New York.

McCormick said he feels the greatest potential for long-term growth is in retail, not mail order, which currently accounts for 70 percent of sales.

McCormick, who is originally from Connecticut, said he shares the Bean family’s values, a love of Maine and support of outdoor heritage.