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From PRNewswire:
LEGO Group Celebrates 75-Year Anniversary
Quality, Creativity and Fun Remain Top of Mind with Company
ENFIELD, Conn., Aug. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The LEGO Group today celebrates
the 75-year anniversary of its founding in Billund, Denmark August 10, 1932, by
a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen. The company, which first
produced wooden toys, is now the world’s leading construction toy manufacturer,
producing high quality play materials that inspire children to build what they
can possibly -- and impossibly -- imagine.
The LEGO Group’s entire global workforce fetes the anniversary today,
with celebrations happening around the world. Employees at the North
American headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut will enjoy a full program of
activities and fun during an off-site venture to Boston.
Over the years, ownership of the LEGO Group has been handed down
through the generations and is today in the hands of Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen, grandson of the founder, who proudly celebrates his company’s
75th birthday.
Kristiansen said: “I feel an immense sense of pleasure and pride when I
meet children and adults who enjoy our products. Throughout its 75-year
history the LEGO Group has been through difficult and good times --
fortunately much more good than difficult! This has been possible only
because we have been blessed with -- and still have -- an incredibly
committed team of employees. They have helped to keep alive the fundamental
principles on which my grandfather set up the company. So I’m confident
that we can look forward to the next 75 years.”
Although the LEGO Group has existed for many years, it still observes
the same values that were laid down when the company started business.
Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, LEGO Group CEO, who took over the position from
Kristiansen in 2004, aims to uphold everything that has made the LEGO Group
what it is today.
“Our history means a lot to us. This is perhaps best reflected in our
motto, which was also one of our founder’s favorite principles: ‘Only the
best is good enough.’ Quality, creativity and fun have always been our key
values because they provide the strongest platform for children’s
development and learning through play. And they are more in keeping with
the times than ever,” Knudstorp said. “The LEGO brick and the LEGO system
will continue in future to be the foundation on which we base our business
because we offer children unique opportunities to grow and develop through
play.”
To encourage creativity and development through play, LEGO Systems,
Inc, the company’s North American division, launched the annual LEGO
Creativity Awards, designed to award ten $5,000 grants to children between
the ages of 6 and 13 to help fund creative endeavors. Information and
applications can be found at www.LEGOcreationnation.com.
Today, LEGO bricks are sold in over 130 countries, and there are
approximately 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world’s 6 billion
inhabitants. It’s estimated that children spend 5 billion hours a year
playing with LEGO bricks. At the beginning of the 21st Century, the LEGO
brick was acclaimed “Toy of the Century” -- first by Fortune Magazine and
later by the British Association of Toy Retailers.
NOTES:
It began with wooden toys ...
In the early 1930s, the world was in the grip of an economic
depression. Ole Kirk Christiansen felt its effects in his carpentry
business, so he looked for other ways of earning a living, and decided on
wooden toys. The company name emerged in 1934, when “LEGO” an abbreviation
of the Danish words “LEG GODT”, meaning Play Well, was established.
In 1946, Christiansen bought his first plastic injection-moulding
machine and began experimenting with the new material. In 1950, his son,
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, became managing director of the company -- and
it was in 1958 under his leadership that the contemporary LEGO brick was
developed and patented. A fire destroyed the wooden-product warehouse in
1960, and the company focused entirely on the product idea of the LEGO
System, which had proven its viability through a successful international
expansion in a number of countries.
In 1979, Godtfred’s son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, became president and
CEO. He raised LEGO play to a new level -- by adding stories, themes and
role play. Children were introduced to new LEGO worlds, known as play
themes. The first of these was a journey out of this world with the LEGO
Space series in 1979. Simultaneously, the company grew considerably through
an acceleration of the international expansion and development of the LEGO
brand.
After 25 years as President of the company, in 2004, Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen appointed Jorgen Vig Knudstorp as the current Chief Executive
Officer. As owner and deputy chairman of the board of directors, Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen is still deeply involved in the company’s development.
Source: LEGO Systems, Inc.
Prnewswire.com
-end of report-
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