Lego has announced record revenues for 2016, but slow profit growth marked the end of years of boost for the inventor of the famous multi-coloured plastic bricks.
Revenues jumped by six percent last year compared to 2015, to 37.9 rbillion kroner (5 billion euros, $5.2 billion), for a net profit up two rpercent to 9.4 billion. This is the smallest annual rise since 2007 for rboth figures. "We have had an almost supernatural growth in recent ryears. Now we have more sustainable growth," CEO Bali Padda told a rlive-streamed press conference.r
While consumer sales in European markets were satisfactory and rdevelopment prospects were "interesting" in China, they "stagnated" lastr year in the United States despite large marketing expenses. "In the US,r consumer sales were flat year-on-year despite a significant increase inr marketing spend in the second half of the year," Padda said in a rstatement. "We were encouraged by our performance in mature markets in rEurope and continue to see strong potential in China, which represents ran attractive growth opportunity." r
Lego, whose masked figures hit the top of the US box office with r"The LEGO Batman Movie", plans to launch new products this year rcombining physical toys and digital platforms. The toy maker giant will rcontinue to invest internationally, especially in production in China rwhere it will build a new plant.r
It announced in December a split that would focus the value and rstrategy on a new entity to control the brand, Lego Brand Group, led by rJorgen Vig Knudstorp, the first non-family member of the company. Lego rGroup has transformed over the years into an increasingly large group, rwhile remaining exclusively in the hands of the descendants of Ole Kirk rKristinsen, a carpenter who had created a wooden toy manufacturer in r1932 and patented the famous plastic brick in 1954. As "The Lego Movie" ris set to have a sequel in 2019, the brand is widely known in video rgames, cartoons, Legoland amusement parks, and other products.
