Copenhagen (AFP) – Lego’s CEO told AFP that US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats do not keep him up at night, as the world’s largest toymaker on Tuesday posted record earnings for 2024. Sales rose 13 percent to 74.3 billion kroner ($10.8 billion) last year, while net profit grew five percent to 13.8 billion kroner. “We are relevant and we have exciting passion points for many different consumer groups, and that has worked throughout the world,” the Danish company’s chief executive, Niels Christiansen, told AFP.
After a strong year, the head of the unlisted family-owned company aims to keep a cool head in response to geopolitical uncertainties and Trump’s trade policies. Lego has a factory in Mexico that supplies the US market and is building another in the United States due to be operational in 2027. Trump has paused tariffs on products made in Mexico until next month and he has threatened to impose duties on European Union products. “At this point in time, there are no tariffs. If they would come in and we would deem that they would be more of a permanent nature, then I think we will also find ways to deal with that,” Christiansen said, adding it was “not what keeps me awake at night.”
“It’s not the first time we see those fluctuations, and every time we’ve been able to not overreact,” he said. The chief executive added that for the company, gaining market share was “way more important than whether we get tariffs or not,” which he stressed that the company has managed to do for the past five years. Lego’s success stands out in an otherwise sluggish toy market, as consumer sales increased by 12 percent, the company said, while the toy market contracted by one percent. “In a market that over the last five years has not grown or only grown a couple of percent, we’ve grown 12, 13, 14 percent every year,” Christiansen said.
In 2024, Lego boasted a portfolio of 840 products, of which 46 percent were new. Franchises like Lego Star Wars and Harry Potter, along with partnerships — notably with the video game Fortnite — have cemented the Danish toymaker’s brand among consumers. “We want to be relevant…with kids and adults,” Christiansen said. “So we also need to be there with things that they’re really excited about,” whether it is sports or video games.
“The advantage we have with this strong Lego brand is that most other brands would really like to work with us,” he said. And that has won the group consumers worldwide. “It’s not one particular country, it’s not one particular product or product group. It is very broad-based,” Christiansen said.
However, the group, whose name is a contraction of the Danish “play well” (leg godt), has seen stronger demand in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East than in Asia, where it has invested heavily in recent years. “In the US, we gained more shelf space in stores and we have more consumers being excited about the Lego brand, so we can afford to take a couple of years to get China back to growth if that’s what it takes,” Christiansen said.
The company has for several years been trying to make its plastic bricks more environmentally friendly and said that half of the materials now used are sustainably sourced. While the company did not disclose how much it has invested in its sustainability projects, it said they had increased by 68 percent from a year earlier.
© 2024 AFP
