For Lego, everything is awesome
Just like the building blocks it makes, everything is clicking into place for Lego.
The Danish toymaker said sales rose 13 percent last year, helped by a boost from "The Lego Movie" and stronger sales in product lines such as Lego City and Lego Creator. Its profit rose 15 percent, the company said on Friday.
The strong growth at Lego bucks the general trend for toymakers, with rivals such as Mattel suffering from declining consumer interest amid inroads from apps and electronics. Lego, however, has cannily mined pop-culture trends to create kits and sets that mix popular themes such as Star Wars with parents' desire to offer a hands-on learning experience.
"Our ability to innovate and reinvent the Lego play experience every year is vital for our success," chief executive Jørgen Vig Knudstorp said in a statement. "Looking at the products we have developed for 2015 I feel confident that we will bring joy to even more children in the coming year."
The company's 2014 net profit jumped 15 percent to 7.03 billion Danish kroner ($1.07 billion) from 6.12 billion kroner in 2013. Revenue rose 13 percent to 28.6 billion Danish kroner ($4.4 billion).
Next month, the company will debut a new line of Legos called Elves, which are geared to girls and include sets such as "Naida's Spa Secret" and "Azari and the Magical Bakery." Lego said it expects the global toy market to grow by the low single digits in 2015.
The hugely successful "Lego Movie," which brought in almost $260 million in domestic box office sales, also helped boost Lego's sales and bottom line. The company debuted a line of toys linked to the film, such as "Lord Business' Evil Lair."
But with birth rates dropping in many European countries, drying up the pool of potential customers, Lego is looking for new growth in countries such as Brazil, Turkey and Malaysia, where it recently opened sales offices. It also started construction last year on a manufacturing plant in Jiaxing, China, which will start operating this year, and opened an office in Shanghai.
"We estimate that more than 85 million children across the world had a Lego play experience during 2014," said chief financial officer John Goodwin in the statement. "This has only been possible through an ongoing focus on building our capabilities globally during 2014 from manufacturing to sales, as well as developing great products that appeal to children across cultures and geographies."
Despite its successes, 2014 brought some controversy. Lego has come under fire for its gender-themed sets, with some critics decrying its Friends sets as portraying a sexist view of girls, given that the toys are focused on modeling and pets.
Last year, after a 7-year-old girl complained to the company that it offered more boy Lego minifigures than girls, the company created its first minifigure set featuring scientists who are also women. The $19.99 set sold out quickly at the Lego store. "This set was overwhelmingly popular and is no longer available for purchase," the Lego store notes.