Lego cheers fastest growth in five years amid pandemic sales boost

The Danish toy maker reported a 19% jump in operating profits to 12.9 billion Danish kroner (£1.5 billion) for 2020 as revenues rose 13%.
Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely from Diversity in front of a Lego Argos van with Super Mario branding
Holly Williams10 March 2021

Danish toy giant Lego has revealed its fastest growth for five years thanks to soaring demand from locked-down families during the pandemic.

The group reported a 19% jump in operating profits to 12.9 billion Danish kroner (£1.5 billion) for 2020 as revenues rose 13% to 43.7 billion Danish kroner (£5 billion) and consumer sales soared 21%.

It saw strong online sales as shops worldwide were forced to close amid coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions and with parents seeking to entertain their children in lengthy periods of lockdown.

It also hailed last year’s launch of the Super Mario sets, which blend physical bricks with digital games, as one of its most successful ever.

Lego said it will ramp up investment in similar sets during 2021, starting with this month’s release of Lego VIDIYO – a partnership with Universal Music which allows children to make their own music videos with special effects and filters.

Lego group chief executive Niels Christiansen said: “For the past two years we’ve made large-scale investments in initiatives designed to support long-term growth.

“In 2020, we began to see the benefits of these, especially in e-commerce and product innovation.

“We will further increase investments during the coming year, with a continued focus on innovating play, our brand, digitalisation and developing an omnichannel retail network.”

But despite the sales boost during the crisis, the group also had to navigate disruption as film releases were postponed, forcing it to hold back new toy launches.

Some of its global factories and shops were also temporarily closed due to the pandemic and, while some have since reopened, others remain closed, according to the group.

The group said the sales jump was partially offset by higher costs of global shipping following the temporary closure of the manufacturing sites in Mexico and China, as well as investments in new products.

It saw the number of visits to Lego.com double last year and, despite the pandemic, ploughed ahead with store openings – with another 134 new shops, including 91 in China, expanding the chain to 678.

Lego plans to open another 120 sites in 2021, with 80 in China.

Mr Christiansen said: “People are looking for unique and memorable physical brand experiences, so we will continue to invest to expand our global retail footprint, as well as elevate our instore shopping experiences.

“We will also further build our e-commerce capabilities to support online shopping on our own and our partners’ platforms.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in