Posted: 03 March 2011 2120 hrs
COPENHAGEN: Europe's biggest traditional toy maker,
Lego said Thursday now counted fourth in the global rankings after
soaring sales of its colourful building bricks in 2010, especially
in the US, Britain and Eastern Europe.
Last year, Lego sales jumped 37 per cent to 16.01 billion kroner
(2.15 billion euros, $2.98 billion), with net profit soaring 69 per
cent to 3.72 billion kroner.
"The result is extremely satisfactory and is due in part to
vigorous growth in markets such as the USA, UK, Russia and Eastern
Europe -- all identified as growth markets for the company," Lego
chief Joergen Vig Knudstorp said in a statement.
The Danish company, which in 2009 ranked fifth worldwide, said its
global market share rose to 5.9 per cent from 4.8 per cent and it
was "now the world's fourth-largest toy manufacturer."
Lego said it was growing much faster than the overall market, which
was experiencing only a slow recovery.
"The group has been capturing market share in all its markets and
although Europe is the part of the world in which consumers already
own most Lego bricks, growth has been double-digit in most European
countries too," it said.
The family-owned company, based in the western Danish town of
Billund, has seen several years of strong growth after a deep
crisis in 2003-2004, since when it has been rapidly expanding its
factories in the Czech Republic and
Mexico.
At the end of 2010, the company counted 8,365 employees, an
increase of 1,079 from a year earlier.
The global toy market is headed by world-leader Mattel and
runner-up Hasbro.
-AFP