Lego builds profit, market share in first half

COPENHAGEN

LEGO, Europe's biggest toymaker boosted profit and market share in the first half of the year, helped by sales of Star Wars and Lego City building-block sets and the introduction of new board games.

Net income jumped 64 per cent to 1.12 billion kroner (S$256 million) in the first six months, up from 684 million kroner for the same period last year, the Billund Denmark-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Revenue rose 34 per cent to 5.86 billion kroner, from 4.37 billion kroner, extending a growth streak that began in 2004.

The group said all its markets "recorded double-digit growth rates in its sales" during the period, including key markets such as the United States and Eastern Europe.

Classic product lines like Lego City, Lego Star Wars, Lego Technic and Lego Duplo generated the largest sales.

The compnay said that it increased its share of the global toy market to 5 per cent in the period as the market expanded by about 2 per cent.

That compares with Lego's 4.8 per cent market share for the whole of last year, and 3.6 per cent in 2008.

Lego said it has had a "positive reception" for the introduction of new board games such as Minotaurus that compete with products by market leader Hasbro.

The group's chief executive, Mr Joergen Vid Knudstorp, said yesterday that he was satisfied with the result.

"All our markets can report strong growth," he said in the statement.

"We are moving into our peak season when our market releases will include a number of brand new Lego Harry Potter products," he added.

Lego, which estimates that children spend five billion hours a year playing with its multi-coloured bricks, has bought licences from movie-makers including Lucasfilm and Walt Disney.

Meanwhile, Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in the United States, reported on July 19 that second-quarter revenue declined by 7 per cent.

The family-owned Lego does not release quarterly figures.

BLOOMBERG, AP


With the huge increase in sales, I guess lego price is just going up, the price is already markup by about 5-10% this year.

We had already sense the strong buying of lego in Singapore this year compared to previous years, it seems more and more people are jumping into lego. The speed at which lego is sold at the recent sales proved that the demand is getting stronger. Check my 20 Aug post.

As a vintage star wars collector, I don't collect Lego Star Wars now, as it is just too pricey in my opinion.. and true Star Wars collector will go into the original 80s vintage stuff, this is where the value lies.

Anyway...just have fun brickin'. I will make a post on the shipment I received last night.