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LEGO® Group reports blockbuster profit (1st half of 2009)
By Christian Wienberg
Aug. 17, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- LEGO A/S, Europe’s biggest toymaker, said
first-half profit jumped 60 percent as it sold more building block products
based on the “Star Wars” movies and classic “LEGO City” series.
Net income increased to 684 million Danish kroner (USD $130 million) from 427
million Danish kroner in the same period a year earlier, the Billund,
Denmark-based company said in a statement on its Web site today. Sales rose 23
percent to 4.37 billion kroner.
LEGO, which estimates that children spend 5 billion hours a year playing with
its multicolored bricks, has bought licenses from movie makers including
Lucasfilm Ltd. to fend off competition from electronic toys and computer games.
The closely held company said today it has expanded capacity with new block-
molding machines in Denmark, Hungary and Mexico because of “sustained” growth
expectations.
“It’s particularly pleasing to note the continued strong growth in our classic
product lines,” Chief Executive Officer Joergen Vig Knudstorp said in the
statement. There’s still “considerable uncertainty” surrounding the annual
results as most of toy sales occur in the last months of the year, he said.
“Based on the fine results achieved in the first half of the year, we’re
optimistic.”
LEGO said it won market share as the global toy market declined “somewhat” in
the six-month period. The Danish company’s sales rose in “almost all markets”
with North America and East and Central Europe leading growth.
Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toymaker whose products include the Barbie
dolls, reported a 19 percent drop in second- quarter revenue last month.
LEGO was founded in 1932 and sells its products in more than 130 markets. The
company is owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandson of its founder. He is the
world’s 318th-richest man, worth about $2.1 billion, according to Forbes.com.
Bloomberg.com
-end of report-
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