Subject:
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Re: A quick LEGO History
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 24 Dec 2006 18:23:53 GMT
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Viewed:
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2318 times
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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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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A quick LEGO History
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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 (...) (17 years ago, 25-Dec-06, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: A quick LEGO History
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| (...) 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 - (...) (17 years ago, 24-Dec-06, to lugnet.general)
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