Lego to open 120 new shops this year

Hundreds of stores have closed while the COVID-19 pandemic going on but not at Lego, which is on track to inaugurate 120 new shops in 2020.

The Danish toy firm reporters bricks-and-mortar stores had a solid future, despite the drop in footfall on high streets and social distancing restrictions in shops.

   

“When our stores have reopened after lockdown, there have been queues,” boss Niels Christiansen said.

“We give people the brand experience in our shops which we can’t do outside.”

It comes as Lego declared revenues of DKK 15.7bn (£1.8bn) for the first half of 2020, up 7%, while operating profit increased by 11%.

At present, Lego has 612 stores around the world. Among them, 14 shops are in the UK. Of the new stores it is inaugurating, 46 were launched in the first half of 2020.

Overall, 80 of them will be based in China.

“We have a more than a million adult fans signed up to our website,” Mr Christiansen said.

“We saw a very positive development during the coronavirus lockdown when families began playing and building Lego sets together.”

Sales of the more complicated – and more expensive – big Lego sets grew by two and a half times in the first half of 2020, he said, as families looked for big projects to make together during lockdown.

“We’ve seen momentum continue into the second half of the year even after people started going back to work and to school. So the result is not just a reflection of two months when everyone was sitting at home,” Mr Christiansen said.

Alongside its store openings, the firm said e-commerce remained vital to the business, with visits to its website doubling to 100 million in the first half this year.

Its said its themed sets continue to prove popular, with the top-performers including Star Wars, Disney Princess, and Harry Potter.