The Supply Chain Evolution at L.L.Bean: A Path to Sustainable Growth

For decades, L.L.Bean maintained a consistent store growth trajectory, characterized by the opening of one or two new retail locations each year. This strategy thrived on strong store teams adept at tackling operational challenges, supported by a supply chain engineered for a direct-to-consumer model.

Recognizing the Signs of Change

However, this long-standing formula began to show cracks as the brand scaled its operations. According to Corey Bouyea, the Vice President of Stores & Retail Operations, the warning signs accumulated subtly as retail grew alongside the company’s catalog and e-commerce sectors. It became glaringly clear when the number of stores hit 50, leading to an escalation in the pressures the company faced.

“The pressure really started to show its ugly head when we hit 50 stores in our store portfolio a couple of years ago,” Bouyea remarked during a recent RILA conference on leading transformation. “That pressure has increased as we’ve got closer to 70 this past year.”

Identifying the Core Issues

The challenges faced weren’t related to demand, store performance, or execution. Instead, they stemmed from the structural design of L.L.Bean’s supply chain. Initially tailored for a world where the majority of orders were sent directly to customers, the company’s systems—ranging from inventory management to fulfillment processes—had not adapted effectively as retail channels expanded.

Kirsten Piacentini, Chief Supply Chain Officer, articulated the predicament: “Our supply chain was optimized to send one or maybe two or three products to an individual customer.” As a result, this model was repeatedly modified to accommodate the needs of retail, wholesale, and omnichannel operations, creating a situation fraught with inefficiencies.

A Growing Burden on Store Teams

Instead of receiving streamlined shipments that were ready for the sales floor, store teams found themselves dealing with cumbersome, oversized e-commerce orders. The shipments were chaotic—featuring mixed product categories and inconsistent preparation—with each unit requiring individual handling. This convoluted process led to extensive back-of-house labor instead of allowing staff to focus on customer service.

“The things you can’t fix upstream just snowball themselves into the things that the store teams deal with,” Bouyea explained. With more store locations, inefficiencies compounded, forcing teams to sort, prep, and react rather than engage directly with customers.

The Tipping Point

As L.L.Bean approached the daunting milestone of 70 stores, a strategic vision emerged: to open 10 or more new locations annually as part of their Vision 2030 growth plan. However, the underlying supply chain logistics could no longer support rapid expansion.

“It’s just not designed in a place where it’s going to enable us to scale to that rapid speed that we need,” Bouyea stated, highlighting a crucial realization that pushed the company to reconsider their supply chain from the ground up.

Rethinking the Supply Chain Model

The necessity for change led L.L.Bean away from incremental adjustments to a holistic reevaluation of its supply chain’s support structure for retail operations. The logical starting point for this rethinking was retail—although not L.L.Bean’s largest channel, it was the fastest growing, and the existing model’s limitations were evident there.

As Bouyea succinctly put it, the central concern was not whether the company could continue to open more stores, but rather if the infrastructure supporting them could withstand such growth. “It’s just not designed in a place where it’s going to enable us to scale to that rapid speed that we need,” he concluded.