Lego will not be your common toy firm. If it had been, it’d should face a slowdown that’s been affecting business majors like Hasbro and Mattel.
The world’s largest toy maker as a substitute mentioned Wednesday that its internet revenue grew 16 % within the first half of the 12 months because it gained floor in an in any other case slowing market.
The Danish firm mentioned its first-half gross sales rose 13 % to 31 billion kroner ($4.6 billion) whereas internet revenue rose to six billion kroner.
“This growth has been driven by the Lego Group taking a higher share,” chief government Niels Christiansen mentioned 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 gathered progress over 5 years was 85% in comparison with the toy market’s meager 11%.
The group, greatest identified for its plastic bricks and whose title is a contraction of “play well” in Danish (“Leg godt”), launched round 300 new units throughout the first half of 2024, whereas persevering with to see larger income from franchises corresponding to Star Wars and Harry Potter.
The corporate additionally lately introduced that it was forming a partnership with Nike to develop merchandise and content material collectively.
Lego is trying to replicate the success of its digital partnership with Epic Video games’s Fortnite. As extra folks flip to types of “hybrid play,” the corporate is trying to capitalize on it with the launch of its apps for youngsters, the CEO mentioned throughout the earnings name.
The Danish family-owned firm noticed a wave of curiosity by way of the pandemic when folks had 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 fanatics. That’s been the corporate’s sturdy swimsuit, along with its take care of element and high quality.
“This excellent demand was driven by our strong and diverse portfolio,” CFO Andersen mentioned.
Gross sales rose the strongest in Europe and North America however had 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 mentioned throughout the earnings name.
Lego additionally celebrated the progress in its sustainability efforts throughout 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 gas and renewable or recycled supplies, bringing the corporate one step nearer to its 2032 objective of constructing all of its merchandise from greener sources at no additional value to customers. Lego has earmarked $1.4 billion to additional this mission within the 4 years to 2025.