Subject:
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Re: article about the enfield situation
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Nov 2000 07:27:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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900 times
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In lugnet.lego, Carsten Sorensen writes:
> The cost cuts are in response to an estimated fiscal 2000 loss of $40
> million to $65 million globally, which follows several see-saw years for the
> company's finances. Lego had strong earnings in 1996, but barely made a
> profit the following year. In 1998, the company reported its first loss
> ever, which led to layoffs for 10 percent of its global work force. But last
> year the company rebounded with a pretax profit of $67 million, built on a
> 25 percent increase in sales.
>
> A good chunk of that increase came from the introduction of the
> extraordinarily popular Star Wars-themed sets. The sets are still selling,
> but not at last year's blistering pace, and Lego is reporting a general
> decline in sales across most product lines. Some products continue to sell
> well, however, including Lego's pricey and high-tech MindStorms robotic sets.
Do they even understand that one of the reasons they're losing money is
because they're dumbing down their educational building toy product? They
start losing money (for the first time ever, apparently) around the same
time as they introduce dumbed down juniorized products. Where's the logic
in keeping up the charade that children are demanding easier to build sets
that don't take as much time to build? Not only are these sets an eyesore,
but they've cost the jobs of a full 10% of their global work force, and
apparently more now with the restructuring. These are real people with
families, people trying to make a living in this world. Some of them must
have believed that working for LEGO would be a worthwhile job, it's taught
so many people about engineering and mechanics, form and shape, mathmatics
and whatever, you name it. I feel sorry for them. They're not just
numbers, they're people. If anything, the committees that sit around and
brainstorm how to make LEGO "the #1 brand name at all costs" should get the
axe. They probably didn't realize how well they were doing in the first
place before they came up with all these *scoff* great ideas. There's
probably some irony in there somewhere. Everyone knows what LEGO is, or
what it was, rather. Now you have people going through the store isles
looking at what passes for Technic, those Thowbots/Slizers and Roboriders
(soon to be joined by Bionicles), and you have them asking "This is LEGO?".
(At this part in my rant, I'm just going to ramble, don't mind me...) =)
There's probably more to it than that, but I've still got that feeling that
they've forsaken everything that made them the global giant of a company
they are today and that's what is affecting their fortunes. I know you
really don't want to hear another rant on juniorization and the changing
face of the company, I just had to add my feelings on the subject, sorry.
Hmmm... Mindstorms seems to be the one of the only product lines that is
doing well for the company. Non-dumbed down products that seem to be the
natural evolution from Technic/Expert Builder. That should say something.
Smart, well designed sets that capture the imagination and push the
buyer/builder to learn, create, design and build verses dumbed down
juniorized sets that are a snap to put together but low on creativity and
usability and you wonder which will make money for the company. Am I making
sense? This seems obvious to me and my way of thinking, I wish it would
make sense to whoever is on those committees over there. Then again, I
don't know all the facts, I can just speculate and postulate. In the end
after it's all said and done, I'm just a fan of a toy company that would
like to see them doing better for themselves and doing better for their fans
of all ages. *shrugs* =)
~Nathan
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: article about the enfield situation
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| Much as I'd like to believe that, I bet money was wasted on other things, trying to "grow the brand". I wonder how much they blew on the RockRaiders, with the comic scenes and video game and total-theme research. I wonder the same about Action Team. (...) (24 years ago, 29-Nov-00, to lugnet.lego)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | article about the enfield situation
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| Lego To Shut Enfield Plant, Lay Off 94 By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN The Hartford Courant November 28, 2000 Lego will lay off 94 workers and shut down its Enfield-based manufacturing plant in response to a multimillion-dollar net loss this year, the company (...) (24 years ago, 29-Nov-00, to lugnet.lego)
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