In less than ten years, firm has more than quadrupled its revenue.
LEGO Group has this morning confirmed that it increased sales in 2013 by 11 per cent.
Evergreen product lines such as LEGO City, LEGO Duplo, LEGO Technic and LEGO Creator all saw double digit growth. In addition, LEGO Friends - which launched in 2012 - showed its long-term potential by also recording double digit growth, while LEGO Legends of Chima was established as a major theme globally.
Revenue increased to €3,403 million from €3,103 million the year before. The year's operating profit increased to €1,118 million from €1,022 million (a growth of ten per cent), while net profit was €820 million, up from €754 million in 2012, an increase of nine per cent.
While the large US, UK and Central and Northern European markets saw single digit growth for the year, LEGO said that most other markets saw double digit growth sales. Asia, in particular, was singled out as seeing very strong growth.
"In 2013 we increased our sales by 11 per cent, outperforming the general toy market, which is a very satisfactory result," said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, president and CEO of the LEGO Group. "Continually developing and innovating our consumer offering is a key to our success, and in 2013 we successfully developed and launched products that children put high on their wish list all over the world."
While the LEGO Group expects the global toy market to grow low single digit annually in the future, Vig Knudstorp believes the company can outgrow the global market and gain market share.
"We remain ambitious and expect to continue to grow our market share. We will do so by expanding our global presence – but also through a continued focus on developing and innovating our product offering so that we remain relevant to children all over the world," he said.
Mads Nipper, EVP and CMO of the LEGO Group, added: "We are very satisfied with the growth of LEGO Friends in its second year on the market and we look forward to expanding the theme in the coming years. In addition, we have successfully established the theme LEGO Legends of Chima as a major line, and we will further develop this story and the products in 2014.
"LEGO Legends of Chima is a rich and engaging universe that children can explore in many ways. Not only by building and playing with LEGO sets, but also in the digital world using apps, exploring content on LEGO.com, via videos and online games. The theme is a great example of how we bridge physical and digital play."
