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Retail & consumer

Botanical bouquets and Formula One cars drive Lego to record half-year revenue

Botanical bouquets, Formula One race cars and collectable sets propelled Lego to record first-half revenue of about $6.54 billion, up 21% on the same period last year.

Operating profit at the privately held Danish toymaker rose 22% to roughly $1.7 billion, according to half-year results published on Tuesday.

The company launched 332 new sets in the six months, another record, while continuing to produce legacy ranges from previous years.

Among the launches was Smart Play, a platform that adds sensors to brick sets so they can respond to movement, produce sound and light up.

Lego also delivered a long-awaited tie-up with Pokemon and extended into sport through partnerships with Formula One and FIFA.

Its collaboration with Epic Games, which brings elements of the video game Fortnite into physical sets and Lego into digital spaces, continued to attract new buyers.

Niels Christiansen, chief executive, said the partnerships reached people whose interests had not previously been reflected in the brand.

He said those buyers tended to explore the wider product range once they started building.

The company was recruiting new consumers, retaining existing ones well and selling more to them, he said.

Lego has spread its range across a wide span of prices.

A Star Wars N-1 Starfighter set aimed at younger builders sells for about $30, while a more intricate version with close to 2,000 pieces retails at $250.

Christiansen said sales were strong at both ends of that range despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

He said the business was growing quickly among children as well as adults, and described the ability to cover the whole consumer market rather than a single segment as crucial.