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Someone on a local Detroit area Historic Preservation site asked me if "LEGO By
Samsonite" meant that Samsonite sold the company to LEGO.
Well I went off on a long tangent, and I thought I would cut/paste it here on a
LEGO forum. Since I wrote this from memory, I may be off by 1 year in my
Beatrice Corp. dates. Enjoy!
____________________________
LEGO (The LEGO GROUP) started as a small Danish firm in 1932. By the late
1950's they were expanding throughout continental (non-communist) Europe, but
the company was not large enough to handle some of the foreign markets, such as
Britain, Australia, USA and Canada. So they licensed the product to other
companies.
Courtaulds (today known as Courtaulds/Sara Lee), a textile and chemical maker in
Britain got the license for Britain (1960) as well as the British Commonwealth.
Courtaulds started their first overseas LEGO sales in Australia in 1962.
In USA and Canada (only British Commonwealth country not handled by Courtaulds)
the license went to Samsonite in 1961/62. Back then the company was still known
as Shwayder Bros. The 4 Shwayder brothers founded the steamer trunk company in
Denver back in 1910. Their famous "Samsonite" line came later. In 1965 they
changed the company name to Samsonite.
Around 1974 Samsonite was purchased by that famous multi-national conglomerate
Beatrice. In the 1980's Beatrice was gobbled up by that huge leveraged buy-out
by Kraemer-Kohl-Kravitz (sp?) Wall Street brokerage firm. Beatrice was
dismembered and sold off (the sum of the parts was worth more than the whole).
And Samsonite again became an independent company.
The USA Samsonite license was revoked in 1972 (via legal action, because LEGO
complained that Samsonite was selling LEGO just like they were selling luggage).
The Canada Samsonite license continued until it was sold back to LEGO as part of
the levereage buyout in 1986.
The (British Commonwealth) Courtaulds license expired in 1993. So today TLG
(The LEGO Group) produces LEGO for all countries worldwide.
INTERLEGO AG is the Swiss company fully owned by TLG owners Kirk Kristiansen,
and his sister Gunhild. INTERLEGO owns all the LEGO Patents. The LEGO Group is
the Danish company that produces and distributes all LEGO products, and handles
all sales and marketing.
Kirk and Gunhild (3rd generation family owners) are today a billionaire family.
They no longer need to license LEGO products out to anyone, because they are no
longer "too small"! :)
____________________________
NOTE: a lot of this information was researched by Jim Hughes (Ohio) and Eric
Strand (Texas). Eric even had the pleasure of EMAIL correspondence with a 4th
generation Shwayder family member!
Happy Holidays!
Gary Istok
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In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> Someone on a local Detroit area Historic Preservation site asked me if "LEGO By
> Samsonite" meant that Samsonite sold the company to LEGO.
>
> Well I went off on a long tangent, and I thought I would cut/paste it here on a
> LEGO forum. Since I wrote this from memory, I may be off by 1 year in my
> Beatrice Corp. dates. Enjoy!
> snip <
Gary,
Good, concise history! I've heard bits and pieces of this before, but never
quite so linearly told. I always find this stuff fascinating. Thanks for sharing
this.
- Kelly
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In lugnet.general, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> > Someone on a local Detroit area Historic Preservation site asked me if "LEGO By
> > Samsonite" meant that Samsonite sold the company to LEGO.
> >
> > Well I went off on a long tangent, and I thought I would cut/paste it here on a
> > LEGO forum. Since I wrote this from memory, I may be off by 1 year in my
> > Beatrice Corp. dates. Enjoy!
>
> > snip <
>
> Gary,
> Good, concise history! I've heard bits and pieces of this before, but never
> quite so linearly told. I always find this stuff fascinating. Thanks for sharing
> this.
>
> - Kelly
You're most very welcome Kelly,
Now that the "burden" of the LEGO CD is finished, I can return to posting a lot
of interesting information that I have learned the past few years from others,
as well as from folks in Billund. Luckily, I've never had to sign an NDA!
(Probably because all my research looked back to the past, and not the future!)
:-D
Happy Holidays!
Gary
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In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> LEGO (The LEGO GROUP) started as a small Danish firm in 1932.
So, out of curiosity, why is this usually called the starting date? I always
hear it quoted that Lego started in 1932, but I'm not sure why people quote that
rather than 1895 or 1916. From what I know (from 50 Years of Play book):
1895 - "Billund Woodworking and Carpenter's Shop" is established
1916 - Ole Kirk buys the carpentry shop at age 25
1932 - Ole Kirk starts making wooden toys, comes close to bankruptcy, Godtfred
starts working for his father
1934 - The company is officially named "Lego"
1947 - Lego starts making plastic toys
1949 - 1st generation building bricks are made by Lego, based on Kiddiecraft
bricks
1954 - Lego "System" is conceived of by GKC
1955 - Lego System of play is marketed with Lego's building brick product
1958 - "Modern" building bricks are started with the stud-and-tube system
Did the company actually change its status as a firm/group/incorporation in
1932?
> Courtaulds (today known as Courtaulds/Sara Lee), a textile and chemical
> maker in Britain got the license for Britain (1960) as well as the British
> Commonwealth. Courtaulds started their first overseas LEGO sales in
> Australia in 1962.
> [...]
> The (British Commonwealth) Courtaulds license expired in 1993. So today TLG
> (The LEGO Group) produces LEGO for all countries worldwide.
Neat! I never knew that!
> In USA and Canada (only British Commonwealth country not handled by
> Courtaulds) the license went to Samsonite in 1961/62. Back then the company
> was still known as Shwayder Bros. The 4 Shwayder brothers founded the
> steamer trunk company in Denver back in 1910. Their famous "Samsonite" line
> came later. In 1965 they changed the company name to Samsonite.
> [...]
> The USA Samsonite license was revoked in 1972 (via legal action, because
> LEGO complained that Samsonite was selling LEGO just like they were selling
> luggage). The Canada Samsonite license continued until it was sold back to
> LEGO as part of the levereage buyout in 1986.
Huh! Is there any more information out there concerning the Samsonite license
being revoked? I've always been curious about more details on how/why it
happened, although I have yet to hear any. Actually, I think your comment about
them selling Lego just like their luggage is the most I've ever heard on the
subject!
Aside-- the wikipedia timeline seems to have it wrong. I've changed the timeline
over there at least once, and some things seem to have been changed again, some
incorrectly. It currently says:
"1932 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, opens his shop in the village of Billund,
Denmark."
"1965 - Lego Samsonite is discontinued."
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_timeline
According to answers.com, about Samsonite:
> Interestingly, the company introduced LEGO by Samsonite in 1960. The
> snap-together plastic building blocks for children enjoyed immediate
> acceptance in the North American marketplace and eventually became one of
> the most popular toys of all time. The stellar success of LEGO prompted
> Shwayder Brothers to launch more than 50 new toy items before the early
> 1970s. Lagging performance of the toy division, however, caused the company
> to jettison the operation in 1972 and focus on furniture and luggage.
Of course, it obviously didn't "jettison the operation" entirely, because they
still produced Lego in Canada! Sounds like a Samsonite rep tried to put a spin
on that one...
DaveE
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The 1932 date is when toys were first produced. Prior to that, it's more
Christiansen family business ventures.
1932 = startup of toys.
1949 = bought their first injection molding machine, and started making the
Automatic Binding Bricks.
The "selling Lego like they were selling luggage" were the exact words from a
4th generation Shwayder family member, as were the words "license revoked".
TLG first started selling LEGO themselves in 1973, which is why that is the year
they use for USA LEGO sales. Kind of sour grapes if you ask me, since Canada
sales anniversary starts from their 1962 Samsonite origins. The USA LEGO
anniversary date should be 1961, regardless of what transpired in 1972.
Actually I believe that the process to get the license back started in 1970.
Because that was the last year that USA Samsonite had anything that even
resembled a normal sales lineup. The 1970 USA Samsonite LEGO catalog appears
normal (Eric Strand Image):
http://home.comcast.net/~strand_lego/3449-US/
But then something happened. There is no normal 1971 or 1972 Samsonite LEGO
catalog. After the 1970 catalog, the only known USA Samsonite LEGO catalog is
this one (Eric Strand Image):
http://home.comcast.net/~strand_lego/8031/
I call it the 1971-72 catalog, although it was likely produced in 1972, since
there are 2 versions to the basic sets shown.
Here are the 2 versions of the #103 Samsonite LEGO set (Eric Strand Image):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=980468
The one on the left is the 1971, and the on the right is the 1972 version with
SAMSONITE in larger letters that LEGO. Samsonite knew that their time would be
up shortly , so they didn't care how large they put their company name on the
LEGO boxes. Also, note that these 1971-72 sets have huge parts counts.
Samsonite wanted to get all of the remaining LEGO bricks out of their Loveland
Colorado warehouse inventory before their time was up in 1972.
In fact they sold off the remainder inventory to some of the large USA mail
order companies, such as JC Penney and Sears. Here is a Christmas 1972 JC
Penney page with Samsonite LEGO sets. Unfortunately the end date is cropped off
on this picture, but it stated that these items were available until August 25,
1973.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1299195
This picture shows that by 1972, Samsonite had exhausted their inventory of
yellow plastic and bricks. Only the remaining yellow Samsonite gears were still
available until the end of the production line.
_________________________
In 1972 TLG brought a team of folks to the USA to start a new USA LEGO company
in Connecticut (not yet Enfield). They set up shop, and sold the first sets
starting in 1973.
These 1973-79 USA TLG sets were the same, but had different set numbers than
those sold in continental Europe, Britain and Australia at the time.
Samsonite of Canada must have followed the wishes of TLG much better than the
USA subsidiary. In 1973 Samsonite of Canada was still selling the older
Samsonite sets sold there since 1966.
In 1974 Canada started selling LEGO sets with the set numbers that had the
EU/UK/AUS set numbers, but still had "Samsonite" on the box. By this time
Samsonite (USA and Canada) had been bought by Beatrice International Corp.
Samsonite of Canada continued LEGO production until 1986, when the leveraged
buyout and dismemberment of Beatrice was completed.
And the rest is history...
Gary Istok
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In lugnet.general, David Eaton wrote:
<SNIPPAGE>
> Aside-- the wikipedia timeline seems to have it wrong. I've changed the timeline
> over there at least once, and some things seem to have been changed again, some
> incorrectly. It currently says:
>
> "1932 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, opens his shop in the village of Billund,
> Denmark."
>
> "1965 - Lego Samsonite is discontinued."
>
> See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_timeline
>
> DaveE
Dave, I see that Wikipedia is using the Official LEGO Timeline dates.
Well there's a problem with doing that.... about 20-30% of the time those dates
are wrong!
I wonder what KKK (who is THEE most knowledgeable LEGO historian) thinks when he
looks at that timeline.... :(
The Billund Archives are not in the best of condition. A few errors, but lots
of ambiguity. I have been given a few tidbits of data from the archives that I
have ignored, because I found absolute proof to the contrary.
Compare the official TLG start dates for LEGO countries, compared to what I use
in the LEGO CD (these are the dates for the first brick sales, not sales office
openings):
Denmark - 1949
Norway - 1953
Sweden - 1955 (although they tried some sales in 1950)
Germany - 1956 (althouth they did some test sales in northern Germany in 1955)
Switzerland -1957
Austria - 1957
Netherlands -1957
Belgium - 1957
Portugal - 1957
Italy - 1958
France - 1959
Finland - 1959
Britain - 1960
USA - 1961
Canada - 1962 (although they were producing sets for the USA market in 1961)
Australia - 1962
Spain - 1965
Sometimes the archives confuse first sales with setting up a sales office in a
particular country. The 2 are different, and often not the same year.
Gary Istok
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In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
| |
In lugnet.general, David Eaton wrote:
SNIPPAGE
| |
Aside-- the wikipedia timeline seems to have it wrong. I’ve changed the
timeline over there at least once, and some things seem to have been changed
again, some incorrectly. It currently says:
“1932 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, opens his shop in the village of Billund,
Denmark.”
“1965 - Lego Samsonite is discontinued.”
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legotimeline
DaveE
|
Dave, I see that Wikipedia is using the Official LEGO Timeline dates.
Well there’s a problem with doing that.... about 20-30% of the time those
dates are wrong!
|
I have
raised the issue. If anyone has corrections and can source them, please
make the changes. Changes will
stick a lot better if they are backed up with cites, per Wikipedia’s policy on
verifiability, uncited changes have a
tendency to get reverted.
That timeline, in my view, needs a discussion in the intro about whether it’s
official, or accurate, and what the difference between those things is. :)
If you’re not sure how to do referencing,
put the sources on the talk
page and someone else will fix it for you ... or just find an article that uses
them (they look like footnotes) and look at the source to see how to do it. Many
of my recent articles use them. (for example
Thornapple River does...)
Hope that helps.
++Lar
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In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
| |
In lugnet.general, David Eaton wrote:
SNIPPAGE
| |
Aside-- the wikipedia timeline seems to have it wrong. I’ve changed the
timeline over there at least once, and some things seem to have been changed
again, some incorrectly. It currently says:
“1932 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, opens his shop in the village of Billund,
Denmark.”
“1965 - Lego Samsonite is discontinued.”
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legotimeline
|
|
Funny, I just stumbled onto that timeline before seeing this thread today. I
was actually looking for an answer to a timeline-related question:
What dates did TLG start calling itself TLC and then back again?
-Hendo
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1970 was a very tumultuous year at TLG.
A lot of bad things were in progress at the same time....
1) the USA Samsonite license fiasco.
2) the death of Hanne Christiansen.
3) a new law passed by the Italian parliament.
In October of 1969 on their way to Give Denmark to see a movie, KKK and his
younger sister Hanne were in a car full of young adults (ages in early 20's).
And tragedy struck on that rainy night. The car went off the road, KKK was
critically injured, and poor Hanne died.
Like any father, Godfredt Kirk Christainsen was struck with grief over the loss
of his youngest child, Hanne. And KKK was critically injured, and required a
long hospital stay. It appears that the oldest child Gunhild was not in that
car that night.
The driver of the vehicle has never been disclosed, but rumor around Billund has
it that it was the son of a Copenhagen department store magnate.
Godfredt had a difficult period ahead of him. His depression nearly caused him
to sell TLG. But eventually KKK recovered from his injuries. Word has it that
to this day KKK refuses to talk about that rainy night. Godfredt also recoverd
from his grief (or as much as any father can after losing a child), because he
had to deal with other pressing issues, such as the problems with Samsonite and
with Italy.
Here is a picture of Hanne taken for a LEGO brochure in 1959, age about 9 or 10.
This was taken 10 years before her untimely death in 1969 (Eric Strand Image):
http://home.comcast.net/~strandee/germany_dollhouse/dollhouse_3.htm
Besides the problem with Samsonite, TLG also had to deal with a new law passed
by the Italian Parliament circa 1970, that forbade the import of toys. So in
order to get around this problem, TLG set up a subsidiary in Italy called
Minitalia. They produced their first sets in 1971.
For some reason TLG did not use the "tube bottom" bricks for their first
Minitalia sets. TLG had another patent for bricks involving "X" bottom bricks.
These were produced for the Minitalia line in 1971-72, but soon added tube
bottom bricks to the Minitalia lineup. Why the switch? Perhaps TLG was worried
about their famous "tube bottom" patent in the Italian market.
By 1973 Minitalia sets contained tube bottom bricks, and by 1974 TLG sales
returned to Italy due to the relaxation of the toy import laws. The remainder
of the Minitalia line was sold until supplies were exhausted. From 1974-75 both
Minitalia and LEGO were sold in Italy, until Minitalia quietly disappeared from
Italian toy store shelves.
Here is an example of early (x bottom) and later (tube bottom) Minitalia bricks
(from Luca Giannitti's excellent Minitalia website):
http://www.lucajuventino.altervista.org/lego/minitalia_EN.htm
And the rest is history...
Gary Istok
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In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> For some reason TLG did not use the "tube bottom" bricks for their first
> Minitalia sets. TLG had another patent for bricks involving "X" bottom bricks.
> These were produced for the Minitalia line in 1971-72, but soon added tube
> bottom bricks to the Minitalia lineup. Why the switch? Perhaps TLG was worried
> about their famous "tube bottom" patent in the Italian market.
This makes me wonder whether the design of the 2x2 round tile is a vestige of
the "X" bottom design, or if it came about some other way. It certainly enhances
the usefulness of those tiles.
And, thank you Gary for your enlightening posts; I always enjoy reading them.
Peace,
Ley
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In lugnet.general, David Eaton wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Gerhard R. Istok wrote:
> > LEGO (The LEGO GROUP) started as a small Danish firm in 1932.
>
> So, out of curiosity, why is this usually called the starting date? I always
> hear it quoted that Lego started in 1932, but I'm not sure why people quote that
> rather than 1895 or 1916. From what I know (from 50 Years of Play book):
>
> 1895 - "Billund Woodworking and Carpenter's Shop" is established
> 1916 - Ole Kirk buys the carpentry shop at age 25
> 1932 - Ole Kirk starts making wooden toys, comes close to bankruptcy, Godtfred
> starts working for his father
> 1934 - The company is officially named "Lego"
> 1947 - Lego starts making plastic toys
> 1949 - 1st generation building bricks are made by Lego, based on Kiddiecraft
> bricks
> 1954 - Lego "System" is conceived of by GKC
> 1955 - Lego System of play is marketed with Lego's building brick product
> 1958 - "Modern" building bricks are started with the stud-and-tube system
>
> Did the company actually change its status as a firm/group/incorporation in
> 1932?
No. Godtfred used the name Lego in branding his wooden toys (typically by an ink
stamp on the bottom). The first incorporation of the company was in 1944.
From my website:
In April 1944 Lego switched from a sole-trading firm to a private limited
company incorporated in Denmark under the name Legetøjfabriken LEGO Billund A/S
(The LEGO Billund Toy Factory Ltd.) The largest shareholders were Ole and
Godtfred and the rest of the shares were distributed equally among the other
three brothers and Ulla. Ole became board chairman. The rest of the board was
comprised of his wife Sofia and sons Godtfred, Johannes, Karl Georg and
Gerhart.(1) In 1949 the company was incorporated in Denmark as Lego A/S.
In general trying to track the various permutations of the Lego business groups
is pretty hard to do. Remember that they ended up with both Danish and Swiss
parts of the company. Furthermore much of Lego is actually owned through yet
another Kirk Christiansen company, Kirkbi
> > Courtaulds (today known as Courtaulds/Sara Lee), a textile and chemical
> > maker in Britain got the license for Britain (1960) as well as the British
> > Commonwealth. Courtaulds started their first overseas LEGO sales in
> > Australia in 1962.
> > [...]
> > The (British Commonwealth) Courtaulds license expired in 1993. So today TLG
> > (The LEGO Group) produces LEGO for all countries worldwide.
>
> Neat! I never knew that!
Courtaulds was a major industrial concern, at one time more than 60,000 people
worked for it. It was large enough that in owned the forests from which it got
its cellulose acetate, made the synthetic fibers and then produced the clothing.
They owned and controlled all aspects of their textile business. Exactly how
Courtaulds got into the toy business is not well known, but by the early 1960's
they owned British Lego Ltd, British Trix and G&R Wrenn. It apperas that the
boards of all these companies shared the same people.
>
> > In USA and Canada (only British Commonwealth country not handled by
> > Courtaulds) the license went to Samsonite in 1961/62. Back then the company
> > was still known as Shwayder Bros. The 4 Shwayder brothers founded the
> > steamer trunk company in Denver back in 1910. Their famous "Samsonite" line
> > came later. In 1965 they changed the company name to Samsonite.
> > [...]
> > The USA Samsonite license was revoked in 1972 (via legal action, because
> > LEGO complained that Samsonite was selling LEGO just like they were selling
> > luggage). The Canada Samsonite license continued until it was sold back to
> > LEGO as part of the levereage buyout in 1986.
>
> Huh! Is there any more information out there concerning the Samsonite license
> being revoked? I've always been curious about more details on how/why it
> happened, although I have yet to hear any. Actually, I think your comment about
> them selling Lego just like their luggage is the most I've ever heard on the
> subject!
From my site:
At its peak in the late 1960’s Samsonite managed annual sales of about five
million USD, but these sales figures were far behind those seen in Europe.
Samsonite had found that toy retailing required too many special deals and
conditions. As a Samsonite executive stated in a 1976 interview: “Our managerial
expertise was better suited to consumer durables than to toys, so we eased out
of the toy business.” Their relationship with Lego began to sour and Godtfred,
confident that Lego could now manage the North American market, started the
process to revoke the license. A process that likely involved litigation.
Exactly what that litigation was I dont think has ever been documented by anyone
> Aside-- the wikipedia timeline seems to have it wrong. I've changed the timeline
> over there at least once, and some things seem to have been changed again, some
> incorrectly. It currently says:
>
> "1932 - Ole Kirk Christiansen, opens his shop in the village of Billund,
> Denmark."
>
> "1965 - Lego Samsonite is discontinued."
>
> See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_timeline
>
> According to answers.com, about Samsonite:
>
> > Interestingly, the company introduced LEGO by Samsonite in 1960. The
> > snap-together plastic building blocks for children enjoyed immediate
> > acceptance in the North American marketplace and eventually became one of
> > the most popular toys of all time. The stellar success of LEGO prompted
> > Shwayder Brothers to launch more than 50 new toy items before the early
> > 1970s. Lagging performance of the toy division, however, caused the company
> > to jettison the operation in 1972 and focus on furniture and luggage.
>
> Of course, it obviously didn't "jettison the operation" entirely, because they
> still produced Lego in Canada! Sounds like a Samsonite rep tried to put a spin
> on that one...
>
> DaveE
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Thanks Jim!
For questions relating to the history of the LEGO company and the Christiansen
family, Jim Hughes is really the subject matter expert. He has done a lot of
research about both, whereas my area of research is focused more on the LEGO
sets and parts. Both of us have found our areas of interest overlap so much
that we have been sharing research information for some time now. Plus Jim is
one of the folks that has helped me with the LEGO CD.
Gary Istok
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