Tag Archives: Business

LEGO announces financial results for 2023 calendar year [News]

The LEGO Group has today announced their financial results for last year (2023). On the whole, it was a fairly positive year for the company, as they outperformed the struggling toy market to increase their global market share. Direct-to-consumer sales and revenue both improved relative to their 2022 benchmarks; the former growing by 4%, the latter by 2% to DKK 65.9 billion. Despite this, TLG’s operating profit dropped to DKK 17.1 billion from DKK 17.9 billion the year before (although the second half of 2023 saw 7% growth compared to the same period in 2022). According to LEGO, this was driven by additional investment in diverse strategic areas. Chief among these is a 60% year-on-year increase in their spending on environmental initiatives. The total spend in this area is projected to double by 2025.

These are the headline figures; more details can be found after the jump. But in the meantime, here’s what LEGO Group CEO Niels B. Christiansen made of the results:

“We are pleased with our performance given that 2023 was the most negative toy market in more than 15 years. We continued to grow on top of three years of extraordinary growth and saw strong momentum in the final quarter of 2023. We significantly outpaced the market, growing share and proving the appeal of our strong, diverse portfolio and the LEGO® System in Play.”

“Despite the external market conditions, we continued to invest for the future and made good progress on digital, sustainability and retail initiatives that will support long-term growth. We are grateful for our dedicated colleagues who remain committed to our mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.”

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The LEGO Group announces slowdown in growth for the first half of 2023

According to their most recent press release, the LEGO Group’s revenue for the first half of 2023 is up only 1% over the same period in 2022. Similarly, consumer sales grew by 3% compared to that same period last year. And while a positive number is definitely better than a negative one, this rate of expansion pales in comparison to the stats thrown up over the last three years by TLG (revenue was up 17% for the first half of 2022, for example). However, amid a shrinking toy market, these numbers are outstanding when compared to their peers. And in that hostile environment, TLG managed to further grow its market share over this period.

CEO Niels B Christiansen remains undeterred by the slowdown: “Our strong financial position allows us to invest for the long term, particularly in areas such as digital, sustainability and manufacturing. Overall, our performance is in line with expectations, after three consecutive years of extraordinary growth and we are grateful for our great colleagues who work each day to inspire children through play.” In that vein, work continues on new factory construction in the US and Vietnam, as well as expanding facilities in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and China.

If you’d like to read the press release in full, it’s available via the LEGO Newsroom page.

The day the LEGO brick was born – January 28, 1958 [Feature]

The 28th of January marks the birthday of LEGO — the day when various designs of the brick were submitted to the Patent and Trademark office, and celebrated today as International LEGO Day. The story of the LEGO brick has been told many a time, often glossed over and missing the exact point of discovery. It was only on July 8th, 2020 on Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s birthday that we finally got some insight into how it all came together.  An article was written by Mads Klougart Jakobsen, LEGO’s Manager, Internal Communications, which was only circulated internally for LEGO employees, but was eventually shared with the public LEGO fan community.

Click to dive into the history of the brick

News: The LEGO Group acquires BrickLink from Nexon founder Jay Kim for undisclosed sum – interview with LEGO CMO Julia Goldin

The LEGO group announced today that it is acquiring LEGO marketplace website BrickLink. BrickLink was founded in 2000 by the late LEGO fan Dan Jezek, and was purchased from Dan’s family in 2013 by mobile game company Nexon founder and entrepeneur Jung-Ju “Jay” Kim. Over the past six years, the new owners, via Mr. Kim’s investment company NXMH, have taken the website in a number of new directions, including a “MOC Shop”, Stud.io virtual LEGO design software and the AFOL Designer Program earlier this year.

Although the official press release is fairly light on details, prior to the announcement today, LEGO invited The Brothers Brick to conduct a one-on-one interview with Julia Goldin, Chief Marketing Officer for the LEGO Group. We asked Ms. Goldin about potential conflicts of interest in LEGO now owning a large proportion of the secondary market for its own product, the future of the community-driven BrickLink catalog, and more. Read our in-depth interview in the article below. We’ll also have more analysis and discussion in the coming days.

Read the full interview and press release about LEGO’s acquisition of BrickLink

Toys ‘R’ Us to return to the U.S.

More than a year has passed since the bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us, and the subsequent closure of its 700 U.S. stores. The toy retailer was bought by Tru Kids Brands who, in a recent Toys ‘R’ Us press release, announced they would be bringing the store back to the U.S. in time for the 2019 holiday season. Tru Kids is partnering up with b8ta to bring shoppers “…a new store experience that will deliver the hottest toy products and brands, carefully curated and showcased in highly immersive smaller-format spaces.” An image from the press release provides a concept of what the new storefront may look like. The first two Toys “R” Us stores will open in The Galleria, a Simon Mall in Houston, Texas and the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey.

Read more about the new Toys “R” Us stores

A brief history of LEGOLAND and Merlin Entertainments – how they came together and what it means today [Feature]

Our newsfeeds have been buzzing over the past days about LEGOLAND, Merlin Entertainments, and the privatisation of the theme park company. What this means is that LEGOLAND will be back in private hands after going public as part of Merlin in November 2013. Let’s take a journey through the history of LEGOLAND, reflecting back on the ups, downs, and changes of ownership that have led us to today.

Read our in-depth history and analysis of the Merlin acquisition

LEPIN ordered to stop making and selling LEGO imitation products by Chinese court [News]

Earlier today, a district court in China ruled against four companies for infringing multiple LEGO copyrights by producing and distributing LEPIN-branded imitation products. The companies were ordered to “immediately cease producing, selling, exhibiting or in any way promoting the infringing products” and to pay LEGO 4.5 million RMB in damages (about $650,000 US).

The four companies, including Shantou Meizhi Model Co. among others, were held liable by the Guangzhou Yuexiu District Court for copying 18 specific LEGO sets and multiple minifigures in addition to “carrying out unfair competitive acts.” Niels B. Christiansen, CEO of the LEGO Group commented that the rulings “send a clear warning message to other companies who may be copying LEGO products,” and that the company will continue to “take all necessary legal actions to protect our intellectual property rights.”

The ruling is another significant legal victory for LEGO as the company continues to battle imitators in China. Last year, LEGO won a similar case against Bela Bricks for creating, distributing and selling imitation LEGO products. The rulings also provide precedent to continue pursuing many other clone brands who have tried shutting down and reopening with different names to avoid enforcement.

UK-based LEGO-building business Bright Bricks bought for £8.5m [News]

Last weekend saw Live Company Group, owner and operator of BRICKLIVE exhibitions, announce their acquisition of Bright Bricks, the UK-based LEGO-building business, in a deal worth £8.5m {$11.1m). This is a significant investment in the business of LEGO shows, and highlights Live Group’s ambitions for their BRICKLIVE brand of events and touring exhibits. They have previously stated their aims of expanding and increasing the number of BRICKLIVE shows across the world, with a particular emphasis on Asia and the US.

Bright Bricks bought by Live Group

You can read the press release about the announcement here, but we wanted to know more. We spoke with Ed Diment, one of the directors of Bright Bricks, to find out more about the deal, the ambitions of the new business, and what this might mean for the world of LEGO shows.

Click here to read our interview with Ed Diment

Toys ‘R’ Us, looking back and moving forward for LEGO fans [Feature]

It’s been a few weeks since the news of Toys R Us making its exit from the industry in the most unfortunate way—total bankruptcy—after 70 years of operations, and even more heartbreaking to know that founder Charles Lazarus passed a mere week later, knowing that his legacy ended. We’re not here to debate or speculate what went wrong or what could have been done better, as there’s enough of that news out there to feed on. Instead, we wanted to hear from our fans on what it means to us as LEGO hobbyists, and how this may impact us moving forward. Toys R Us (TRU) is remaining open for business in several countries around the world, including Australia and Canada, so we’ve asked a diverse group of readers to join us in providing commentary that’s part retrospective, and part insight into how TRU affects the LEGO hobby, whether closing or continuing operations.

Toys R Us Geoffrey Afraid

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LEGO 2017 Financial Results – Simplified and made easy! [Feature]

Last week LEGO released its annual financial results for 2017, and to some of us, it may have seemed like it was written in a foreign language. You know what it means to have a profit and loss, but to help cut through all the accounting jargon, we’ve simplified things a bit further for you. Note that we’re taking a huge amount of liberty with the complex details to keep it simple, but it should give you the right general idea.

LEGO 2017 Financial Results Simplified Breakdown

Read our simplified break-down of LEGO’s 2017 financial results

LEGO Annual Results 2017: first annual sales decline in 13 years [News]

This morning in Billund, The LEGO Group has presented its full year financial results for 2017. Unfortunately, not everything is awesome for the Danish toymaker: the company has reported a decline in revenue and operating profit. Revenues declined 7 percent; global consumer sales remain flat.

Here are the highlights of the presentation:

  • Revenue for the full year decreased by 8 percent to DKK 35.0 billion compared with DKK 37.9 billion in 2016. Excluding the impact of foreign currency exchange, revenue for the full year declined 7 percent compared with 2016.
  • Operating profit (profit before financial items and tax) for 2017 was DKK 10.4 billion compared with DKK 12.4 billion for 2016, a decrease of 17 percent year on year.
  • Net profit for the full year was DKK 7.8 billion compared with DKK 9.4 billion in 2016.
  • Cash flow from operating activities for the year was DKK 10.7 billion compared with DKK 9.1 billion in 2016.
  • Decline in revenue was driven in part by clean-up of inventories across the value chain. Global consumer sales were flat and trended upwards in the final months of 2017.

Read more about the annual results…

LEGO wins Chinese copyright case against imitators [News]

LEGO has dealt a major blow to counterfeiters in China by winning a court case against two companies that produce imitation LEGO products. This is the first case that LEGO has filed and won in China claiming unfair competition, following a ruling last month proclaiming LEGO to be a well known recognized trademark in the region.

The suit was filed against two Chinese companies including the company Bela Bricks that were producing sets nearly identical to those from LEGO’s Friends line as well as other top-selling products. According to the ruling from the China Shantou Intermediate People’s Court, the two companies must stop copying LEGO’s designs, packaging, and instruction books due to copyright infringement. Continue reading →