FREEPORT, Maine - The man who transformed L.L. Bean from a single country store into a modern retailing giant died Thursday. Leon Gorman, the grandson of retailer L.L. Bean, was 80 years old.
Leon Gorman had big boots to fill when he took the reins of L.L. Bean after his grandfather died. Leon Leonwood Bean was a prominent figure in day-to-day operations and a stickler for routine. But young Leon Gorman had actually been preparing for a leadership role for some time,
"I used to keep a little black book of improvements I would make if I ever did get in charge of things around there," Gorman said in a 2006 interview with Maine Public Radio. Gorman said he had several hundred to-dos on his list by the time he became president - changes his grandfather hadn't been interested in.
"It was a real challenge. The first thing I really had to do was upgrade the product line - it was really obsolete."
While the iconic L.L. Bean boots didn't change, things like parkas got pull-cord waists and bright colors, like teal and red. Gorman also modernized operations. He hired professional managers, added accounting and budgets. He expanded the company's direct marketing and embraced e-commerce.
Every decade brought a new challenge - particularly the nineties. "Everybody got into the rugged outdoors business and into lifestyle merchandising," Gorman said. "And everybody was getting into catalogs and e-commerce. You name it, it was just intense."
In his 34 years as CEO, Gorman took L.L. Bean from a struggling mail order outfit with a single store to what's now an international $1.5 billion business with thousands of employees.
"He said very little, but when he did, he was hugely influential," says L.L. Bean spokesperson John Oliver. Oliver says what makes Gorman stand out is that, while he elevated the company's bottom line, he also kept its down-home feel and core values: things like treating customers and employees with respect, promising lifetime satisfaction for all its products, and promoting a healthy outdoor lifestyle.
"And for him the business existed not only for that purpose, but the success of the business was to be shared - to be shared with the communities, to be shared with the employees," Oliver says. "And that he did."
Gorman donated his time and resources to many charities. Oliver says Leon Gorman was a humble, thoughtful man who inspired the best from L.L. Bean's employees. He died at his home in Yarmouth after a recurrence of cancer.
