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BUSINESS Thursday 1 November 2018
A25

L.L. Bean looks to northern

neighbor to boost sales

By DAVID SHARP, Associ-
ated Press
FREEPORT, Maine (AP) —
U.S. retailer L.L. Bean is look-
ing to sell more parkas,
sweaters, flannel and mit-
tens in Canada as part of
its strategy for a return to
sales growth.
The 106-year-old retailer’s
In this June 21, 2018 file photo, job applicants talks with iconic boot and other
representatives from Aldi at a job fair hosted by Job News South
Florida, in Sunrise, Fla. products will be sold in
Associated Press 30 stores in Canada this
U.S. companies hiring holiday season, and in
L.L. Bean-branded stores
at robust pace, opening over the next de-
cade. The company also
wages rise faster has launched a dedicated
website for Canadian cus-
tomers that incorporates
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Great Recession. duties and smooths out
AP Economics Writer But with employers increas- currency fluctuations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. ingly desperate for workers, The deal, inked last week,
companies added jobs they are being forced to makes sense because L.L. In this Aug. 17, 2017 file photo, a Bean Boot displayed at the L.L.
in October at the healthi- offer higher wages. Bean has a strong custom- Bean manufacturing center in Lewiston, Maine.
est pace in eight months, The report Wednesday er base in Canada and its Associated Press
and wages rose by the comes two days before the cold-weather gear and ferently in Canada, where is in the U.S.,” he said.
most in a decade, the lat- publication of the govern- outdoor focus are a good the company has an Becoming a wholesaler
est evidence of the dura- ment’s jobs report. Econo- fit, CEO Steve Smith said. agreement with Toronto- and letting a partner op-
ble strength of the U.S. job mists believe that the La- “There are huge growth based Jaytex Group to dis- erate L.L. Bean-branded
market. bor Department numbers opportunities over time,” tribute L.L. Bean products stores in Canada repre-
Businesses added 227,000 will show employers added Smith told The Associated to Canadian retailers like sents a new way of doing
jobs in October, according 190,000 jobs. Press in an interview. “Let’s Sporting Life, Hudson’s Bay things for L.L. Bean.
to a private survey, a sign ADP’s report doesn’t in- go after that market, and and Mountain Equipment But partnering with an es-
that businesses can still find clude government em- see what we can do,” he Co-Op. tablished company makes
workers even with the un- ployment and frequently said. Under the agreement, Jay- sense because some U.S.
employment rate striking diverges from the official Maine-based L.L. Bean is tex also will open L.L. Bean- retailers, most notably
49-year lows. figures, however. coming off several years branded stores in Canada, Target, have stumbled in
The unemployment rate The two reports also re- of flat sales and a difficult starting with the first store in Canada, said Craig John-
fell to 3.7 percent in Sep- spond differently to hurri- era of belt-tightening that the Toronto area in 2019. son, president of Customer
tember, the lowest level canes. included a reduction in The goal is to open 20 stores Growth Partners, a retail
since 1969. ADP’s figures were mostly workforce, a tightening of across Canada within 10 consulting and research
Businesses are staffing unaffected by Hurricane its generous return policy, years, said Howie Kastner, firm in New Canaan, Con-
up at a rapid pace in re- Michael, which struck Flor- and a paring of product president of Jaytex Group. necticut. All told, Canada
sponse to healthy con- ida last month, because its lines to refocus on the com- Bean will benefit from strong currently accounts for
sumer spending and strong report counts someone as pany’s outdoors roots. brand awareness, Kastner about 2 percent of Bean’s
economic growth. employed even if they miss The company sees interna- said, partly because many annual sales; the company
That is forcing more com- work due to bad weather. tional sales as a small but Canadians have shopped hopes to double that in
panies to raise pay to at- The government’s jobs important part of its growth. in the company’s flagship three to four years, Smith
tract and keep workers. data, however, counts L.L. Bean already owns 28 store in Maine. said. L.L. Bean’s sales last
A separate report Wednes- someone as employed stores, a call center and “Everybody that I mention year from all channels, do-
day showed that wages only if they were paid dur- a distribution center in Ja- L.L. Bean to has a story or mestic and international,
and salaries for private- ing the period when the pan, where it has operated a fond memory. There’s an were $1.6 billion.q
sector workers rose 3.1 per- government conducted since 1992. emotional attachment to
cent from a year earlier. its jobs survey. That could But it’ll be doing things dif- the brand, much like there
That was the largest an- lower the government’s
nual gain in more than a employment count when
decade. it’s released Friday.q
A measure of compensa-
tion that includes benefits
and covers all workers, in-
cluding government em-
ployees, rose 2.8 percent
in the third quarter from a
year earlier, the Labor De-
partment report said.
Weak wage gains have
been a soft spot in the
U.S. economy for the de-
cade that has followed the