L.L. Bean is reporting it will lay off 50 to 75 employees at its corporate headquarters in Maine. These latest cuts, which equal approximately 2 percent to 3 percent of Freeport-based staff, are the retailer’s second round of cuts this year.
A spokesman for the company said L.L. Bean “continues to evaluate the fluctuating retail landscape and adapt our organizational design to enable long-term growth” and referenced that it is a “small, focused workforce reduction” that will be voluntary for some employees.
The company said in a media statement that workers impacted by the latest round of L.L. Bean layoffs would receive severance packages and outplacement services. The company laid off customer service employees in April and shortened call center hours in response to more shoppers placing orders online.
The reduction in employee headcount is scheduled for March 2024 and will not affect L.L. Bean’s goal of hiring nearly 3,500 seasonal workers for this year’s holiday shopping season, representing about half of the company’s peak-season workforce.
In June 2023, the company celebrated the completion of its new 390,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Freeport, marking the close of an eight-year, $110 million campus redevelopment in its longtime hometown.
Image courtesy L.L.Bean
