Lego first-half sales up 23% helped by growth in Asia

Lego, the Danish toymaker, said first-half sales rose 23 per cent, helped by growth in Asia. Revenue increased to 14.1 billion kroner (€1.88 billion).

In local currency, sales advanced 18 per cent. Net income advanced 31 per cent to 3.55 billion kroner.

"While all our regions experienced double digit growth during the first half of 2015, it is particularly satisfactory that Asia saw the highest growth rates given the considerable investments we are making there to further the company's globalisation," said Lego's chief commerical officer Loren I Shuster.

Lego, whose name is derived from the Danish words for “play well,” has said it expects to outpace the global toy market, which is estimated to grow by low-single digits in the coming years.

New products generate about 60 per cent of Lego’s sales every year.

Mattel said in July that first-half revenue dropped 4.9 per cent to $1.91 billion as sales of Barbie dolls tumbled. Hasbro said its sales for that period increased by 0.2 per cent to $1.51 billion.

Lego's sales were boosted last year by "The Lego Movie," a film by Warner Bros.

The Danish company controlled about 66 per cent of the construction toys market last year, while its share of the total toys and games market was about 4.2 per cent, Euromonitor estimates. The market researcher forecasts the worldwide market for construction toys will expand to $14.5 billion in 2019 from $9.3 billion in 2014.

Lego is expanding in Asia to tap emerging markets. The company said on Wednesday that the number of employees at its manufacturing facility in Jiaxing in China will grow to 600 by the end of this year from more than 230 today. The factory will be fully operational in 2017. Lego also said packing activities in its new factory in China will begin later this year.

“The factory is going to supply our expanding Asian market and will create production capacity that will enable us to reach even more children in the region,” Lego said.

Bloomberg