Lego annual report 2023: Slightly falling profits with rising sales

The Lego Group published its annual report for 2023 on 12 March. In detail, revenue increased as expected by 2 per cent to DKK 65.9 billion (2022: 64.6), but operating profit fell by 5 per cent to DKK 17.1 billion (2022: 17.8) for the first time in several years in a markedly difficult operating environment. Weak figures in the difficult Chinese market were counteracted by good growth in the USA and Central and Eastern Europe. While the overall toy market is generally shrinking, Lego was able to increase its sales by 9 per cent in comparison. Consumer sales (B2C) also increased by 4 per cent.

Continuing to grow

Commenting on the figures, Niels B. Christiansen, CEO of the Lego Group: "We are pleased with our performance as 2023 was the most negative toy market in more than 15 years. We continued to grow after three years of exceptional growth and experienced strong momentum in the last quarter of 2023. We significantly outperformed the market, increased our market share and demonstrated the appeal of our strong, diverse portfolio and the Lego System in Play.“

Investments

The company continued to invest heavily in 2023. Capacities were increased and modernisation was driven forward at the factory locations in Hungary, Mexico and China. New factories are also being built in Richmond, USA, and Binh Duong, Vietnam, in order to supply the respective markets even more efficiently.

New Lego stores opened

In 2023, 147 new Lego stores (including Certified Stores) were also opened worldwide, bringing the total number of stores to 1,031. Further investments were made in the digitalisation and optimisation of retail platforms.

Sustainability

As usual, the topic of sustainability is strongly emphasised in the annual report. Spending on environmental initiatives more than doubled in 2023 compared to 2022 - and the plan is to continue at this rate until 2025.

Source: www.lego.com