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GENERATIONS OF CHILDREN worldwide have grown up loving Lego and the popularity of tablets and video games will not change that, the company’s chief executive has claimed.
Joergen Vig Knudstorp said he believed that the plastic, multi-coloured bricks — whose name is an abbreviation of the Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well” — would be around for “centuries”.
The company hit trouble a decade ago but is now the world’s biggest maker of toys by sales, more than quadrupling its revenues in 10 years.
Far from threatening Lego’s popularity, Knudstorp said the digital era offered great opportunities for the company to build its customer base even further.
“We are one of the most popular video games, we also have reached more and more customers on social media — Lego fans are gathering like never before,” he said.
In the past, children watched TV and then played with Lego. Now they play on tablets and play with Lego.
“The reason why they do it is that many children, and adults as well, want a real, physical experience. Even though we like to watch football or play it on a PlayStation, it’s still not the same as running on the field kicking the ball.”
He was speaking as Lego, whose headquarters are in Billund, Denmark, opened a fifth ‘main office’ in London last week as the company seeks global growth.
One key target is Asia. As well as offices in Shanghai and Singapore, the company started building a new factory in China’s Jianxing, south of Shanghai, earlier this year to build Lego products for sale in Asia.
‘Please don’t die’
Such an international presence is a far cry from the company’s origins.
The company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, the grandfather of the current owner, in a small workshop in Billund, and took the name Lego two years later.
It started out making products like wooden ducks, while the iconic plastic brick in its present form dates back to 1958.
Lego became a major international brand from the 1960s and Legoland in Billund, now one of Denmark’s biggest tourist attractions, was opened in 1968.
But the group hit trouble in 2004, announcing major losses. Knudstrop was appointed that year and recalls receiving “letters from customers saying ‘please don’t die’”.
He said that, at that stage, the company had “spread ourselves over too many areas” and was poorly run.
To turn the business around, he focused on cutting manufacturing costs, releasing the right products in tighter timeframes and “reigniting the product innovation, really working with children to make products they find more appealing”.
Now the focus is on international expansion, hence the opening of the London office.
For Knudstrop, despite the changes which he has brought and those in the digital world, the Lego brick is at the centre of what the company is about — and will remain so for years to come.
“I think the brick will stay with us for centuries because it is fundamental like football or reading a great book, telling stories,” he said.
“It’s something that will be around forever.”
My grandsons play with some of the
same bricks I had when I was their age
It’s a timeless toy, best ever. We got some the other day while out doing Santa and it dawned on me that the kids will be buying Lego in time too come and that tradition will continue well after we are all gone.
Maybe, but at least you’ll never step on a piece of minecraft in your bare feet.
Unless it’s lego minecraft!!
I can’t wait to have kids just so I have an excuse to buy Lego.
You don’t need an excuse to buy Lego. Just buy it, the people in the shop will think you are buying it for a kid anyway. Don’t wait to have kids cause you won’t be able to afford the cool big expensive sets, like the Death Star or the technics crane. Take a trip to smyths today, go on……. DO IT!!!
That yellow technic crane is the best and most difficult set I’ve ever done. And yes I did get it for myself!
David Beckham plays with Lego :)
You dont need to have kids to have lego. Can always say they are for nephews and nieces to play with when visiting. Our youngest son had all his lego kept and now adding to it in his own home for his children. Such memories.
I just bought a load for the nieces and the box says ages 6-99. It’s just a box of a load of random pieces, no pressure set goal.
There’s no shame in buying yourself lego if they’re advertising it for your age range..
Feet: a device used for finding Lego in the dark.
Around forever??…..Have you seen Lego Prices, off the wall
It’s a necessary investment in critical infrastructure.
Its pricey but worth it though particularly as the kid gets older. Ive bought some of the cheaper bricks and there were bits missing and they didnt fit together great. Theyre alright for younger ones or for the first time to see if theyre into it but you really cant beat the proper stuff
its good stuff but Lego have lost their way as well. Too much of their Lego can only make the one kit so kids make it once or twice and that’s it, doesn’t get played with again
You can buy just boxes of bricks.. You just gotta get them direct from lego.com, it’s called the creative range.
Box of 1000 pieces is about €50ish including p&p to here.
Everything is awesome!
Lego is great but they have two main problems. First is the price and second is the fact all Lego is now a kit designed to make a specific item. Whatever happened to the Lego of my childhood where you just got bricks and it was up to your own imagination as to what you made.
They dont have to be for 1 specific thing. Use your iminagation. Its called playing. Enjoy it.
Lego website. The kits are called lego creative. Just a box of random pieces in assorted colours, shapes and sizes.
Our stores might not stock them – but they do exist.. Have some sitting here!!
Wtf is mine craft about anyway???
I’ve watched YouTube videos trying to fathom it, and I’m none the wiser.
Twitter the same.
It’s a sandbox game – you do what you want. Like what Lego used to be about before it sold out.
There’s an aim to the minecraft game but most people just end up deviating from it instead, wandering about, building structures and fighting monsters etc. one guy even managed to build a rudimentary computer within the game using the blocks and components available. The possibilities are endless. The good thing also, is that they keep on updating the game every several months with new features and block types etc. I bought it for about 20 quid a few years ago and I still play it today, best value game ever!
‘Sandbox’
Wtf? I must be thick.
Sandbox as in it has four outer perimeter walls. Within those for walls anything goes. It’s a brilliant game as it’s built around imagination.
Lego is still brilliant but very expensive and needs a fair bit of space.
Have lovely memories of my late dad sitting on the floor building mansions with lego.
Hogged all the lego for the day ☺
Your never to old to play with Lego!!!!! The best thing ever invented!
Minecraft has gone crazy around the world. Just check out the one in Galway today. Sold out in a few hours as did all the other minecraft conventions around the county.
If you played with Lego as a kid you love playing Lego with the kids … Probably more than them.
Lego died ages ago and is no longer the Lego of old. All it is now is a ‘assemble the corporate promotional thing on the box’ toy. Imagination has been eliminated from the process, and it is just an assembly toy with too many special pieces.
Minecraft retains the true spirit of the original Lego company as it all about imagination and the player is in control, not some corporate hand pushing the kids buttons to just buy more and more boxes.
You just don’t have an imagination do you.
Build whatever you want with the blocks you have and enjoy it !!
Ahem eh that’s what I tell the kids, carry on nothing to see here!
Marko is right. The Lego kits of old are nothing like the ones nowadays. Even when I was a kid in the early nineties I was getting buckets full of pieces with no instructions. Build what you want. Now it’s all tied in with other promotional stuff. Minecraft allows you to be much more creative. Especially on PC. If the blocks you want aren’t there? You can learn how to program and make them. It’s a very powerful creative tool.
Go to the lego website.
Lego creative is the name of the range you are looking for. A box with pieces and no instructions.
Shanti, those kits exist but most kids want the tie in stuff.
As I type, my husband is downstairs with my 3 year old playing with the lego he had as a child.
Lego didn’t sell out, it moved with the times. The kits we buy always have a selection of items to build other than the main one. And we’re buying Lego City and Lego Friends. I kept all my Lego so my daughters play with it along with their new sets. It’s timeless! I’m just waiting for Santa to bring me the Lego Death Star. And yes, I’m part of a team!!!
Lego never lasts and you rarely hear a child talk about Lego so i dunno what there on about Lego should just be left forgotten and Lego should pass phyiscal structures from mine craft and make a step by step plan of sheep just say instead of saying mine craft is bad
Lego won’t last forever as depressed as that may seem. Anything that relies on cheap plastic isn’t going to survive the next century with peak oil being the way it is.
Having said that, Minecraft is just as incredible a toy to give to a child. It’s not physical. But it’s a lot cheaper and the possibilities are endless.
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