OBSERVATIONS 0F A TOY INDUSTRY SURVIVOR Jon Salisbury
THERE HAS been a seismic shift in the global toy balance of power recently that no self respecting industry commentator could fail to allude to and I’m not planning on letting you down: LEGO has overtaken Mattel to become the world’s largest toy business. Yes, you heard right. The
Europeans have outgunned their American toy counterparts to top the global league table. LEGO sales exploded in 2012, increasing by 25 per cent compared to low single digit growth at Mattel and Hasbro, now the
cap of $14.4 billion and Hasbro is valued at $5.4 billion.
KIRKBI A/S is a holding
and investment company which owns the LEGO brand and the majority of the Kirk Kristiansen family’s joint activities, including the majority shareholding in LEGO A/S and a significant shareholding in Merlin Entertainment.
The Merlin Entertainment
Group, which is 36 per cent owned by KIRKBI, runs 94 attractions all over the world including the five current LEGOLANDs, seven hotels and two holiday villages in 21 different
LEGO sales exploded in 2012, rising by 25 per cent and it is now valued at $14.6 billion.
world’s second and third biggest toy companies. “LEGO is on fire,” commented Gerrick Johnson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in New York. LEGO’s bank stopped lending the company money in 2004 when it became distracted by diversification and started to rack up losses, before management control was given to a team led by Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, who is now CEO. Knudstorp refocused the company’s product line, since when things have just got better. LEGO is now valued at $14.6 billion. Mattel, meanwhile, has a market
countries on four continents. The attractions include Madame Tussauds, Chessington World of Adventures and even the London Eye. Their head office is in the English seaside town of Poole in Dorset and LEGO’s stake is valued at $960 million. The company is second only to Disney in its chosen field. The evolution of the brick had a somewhat chequered past and it is worth referencing the role that Kiddicraft’s Hilary Page played in its development. Ex-Kiddicraft employees like Robin Bennett of Alyss Toys, Andy Cooper from Worlds Apart and Sally Plumridge
Jon Salisburyhas written about the toy business since 1985, editing magazines and running toy media events in New York and London. He can be contacted
atjonsalisbury@icloud.comor @JonSalisbury
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This month our columnist is marvelling at LEGO’s turnaround to become the world’s largest toy business
at LeapFrog would doubtless have something to add to this debate. Like me, they will have seen examples of Hilary Page’s early bricks. There is no suggestion of foul play on the part of LEGO and Page’s Interlocking Building Brick hardly set the world alight. It took the re-engineered design input of the Kristiansen family and the launch of the LEGO ‘System of Play’ in Nuremberg in 1956 before it caught fire and took off. LEGO itself has been a
regular target of toy piracy. There is even a Hall of Fame at the Billund HQ showing examples of knock-off bricks, my favourite of which has to be the one called 0937 which, when turned upside down, spells ... LEGO. Cheeky pirates!
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