Lego isn’t your common toy firm. If it have been, it’d need to face a slowdown that’s been affecting business majors like Hasbro and Mattel.
The world’s largest toy maker as an alternative stated Wednesday that its web revenue grew 16 p.c within the first half of the yr because it gained floor in an in any other case slowing market.
The Danish firm stated its first-half gross sales rose 13 p.c to 31 billion kroner ($4.6 billion) whereas web revenue rose to six billion kroner.
“This growth has been driven by the Lego Group taking a higher share,” chief government Niels Christiansen stated in an interview with AFP.
The outcomes mark Lego’s strongest first half ever and underscore the corporate’s clout amid an business downturn. Andersen highlighted that Lego’s accrued progress over 5 years was 85% in comparison with the toy market’s meager 11%.
The group, finest identified for its plastic bricks and whose identify is a contraction of “play well” in Danish (“Leg godt”), launched round 300 new units through the first half of 2024, whereas persevering with to see larger income from franchises resembling Star Wars and Harry Potter.
The corporate additionally just lately introduced that it was forming a partnership with Nike to develop merchandise and content material collectively.
Lego is seeking to replicate the success of its digital partnership with Epic Video games’s Fortnite. As extra individuals flip to types of “hybrid play,” the corporate is seeking to capitalize on it with the launch of its apps for youngsters, the CEO stated through the earnings name.
The Danish family-owned firm noticed a wave of curiosity by way of the pandemic when individuals have been confined to their houses and has managed to construct on that success. One key issue driving Lego’s success was its capacity to make toys for all age teams and curiosity ranges, from younger youngsters to grownup lovers. That’s been the corporate’s robust go well with, along with its look after element and high quality.
“This excellent demand was driven by our strong and diverse portfolio,” CFO Andersen stated.
Gross sales rose the strongest in Europe and North America however have been slower in China. Nonetheless, the corporate launched 41 new shops globally, together with its largest Southeast Asia location in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“There’s no market in which we’re not investigating for a new store,” Christiansen stated through the earnings name.
Lego additionally celebrated the progress in its sustainability efforts through the first six months of 2024.
It made roughly a 3rd of all of the resin utilized in its bricks by way of a mixture of fossil gasoline and renewable or recycled supplies, bringing the corporate one step nearer to its 2032 aim of creating all of its merchandise from greener sources at no additional value to shoppers. Lego has earmarked $1.4 billion to additional this mission within the 4 years to 2025.
