2020 was a year to forget for so many of us, but in the plastic brick world of LEGO it was a year to remember as global sales grew by 13% to $6.98bn as families came together to occupy their lockdown time building.
Lego has posted its annual results for 2020, the strength of which will not come as a surprise to anyone in the global toy community. Sales last year grew 13% to 43.7b Danish crowns ($6.98 b), over double the 6% growth which the company posted in 2019. In addition, operating profit rose 19% to 12.9b crowns.
Niels B Christiansen, CEO, said: “We are very pleased with these results. They show the timeless relevance of the Lego brick and learning through play. This performance is also a testament to the passion, creativity and resilience of our people. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, they worked tirelessly to keep the world playing.”
Strong consumer demand resulted in the double-digit growth of consumer sales, revenue, and operating profit as well as substantial market share gains. Strategic investments designed to deliver sustainable growth in the long-term continued.
Niels B. Christiansen commented: “Covid has accelerated trends that were already in motion. More people shopped online and we’ve seen more families at home building together. 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 investments, especially in eCommerce and product innovation.”
Speaking early this morning to Reuters, Niels confirmed that Lego is planning to hire several hundred new employees to boost digitalisation further in 2021. While he apparently declined to say how much online sales grew last year, he confirmed that the number of visitors on Lego.com doubled to more than a quarter billion in a year.
