Lego Grows Against Odds
In the middle of a recession who would have thought that children would turn to Lego and help push sales to an all-time high?
Lego has positively thrived during the recession, as parents revert back to longer-lasting toys. Retailers of board games and other traditional toys have also seen a renaissance in demand during the downturn. Last month, Hamleys cited Barbie and Transformers, as well as Lego, as toys it expects to do well this Christmas.
Part of the appeal of Lego during a recession is its “longevity”, said Marko Ilincic, the managing director of Lego UK. “Parents spend lots of money on plastic imported toys, but they only do what it says on the tin. But children take Lego to pieces, build them up again and add it to other Lego, and that gives it longevity.”
The first brick of the brand’s story was placed by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who started making wooden toys in his workshop in 1932 before naming the company Lego – coined from the Danish phrase “leg godt”, which means “play well” – two years later. Today, Lego is sold in more than 130 countries, and more than 400 million children and adults will play with its bricks this year. The company makes about 17.5 billion bricks each year, which compares to fewer than two billion actual bricks manufactured in Britain.
But parents don’t just buy Lego for their kids. Mr Ilincic says there are a host of website and forums for Lego adult enthusiasts around the globe. Partly with one eye on this market, Lego launched a range of new board games last month.
Article taken from the Independent