Homeman
Go Home

Press Info

LEGO logo

Only the Best is Good Enough - even today
A profile of the LEGO Group in 1996

The LEGO Group

The LEGO Group is one of the world's largest toy manufacturers, employing close to 9,000 people in 50 companies in 28 countries. The LEGO Group, based in Billund, Denmark, is owned and managed by the Kirk Kristiansen family.

The core business area is the development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of the LEGO toy system. There are LEGO factories in five countries - Denmark, Switzerland, the USA, Brazil and Korea. In Brazil and Korea, production is for the domestic market and, in the USA, for the large North American market, including Mexico. The LEGO Group also has three mould factories, in Switzerland and Germany.

In 1995, LEGO products were sold in 138 countries all over the world. During the past 40 years, around 300 million children all over the world have been given and have played with LEGO bricks. Children use billions of hours every year on creative play with LEGO products.

Apart from the core business of construction toys, we also have a series of other challenging activities in what are known as "Related Business Areas":

  • LEGO Dacta (preschool and school products)
  • LEGOLAND Parks (development and operation of LEGO family parks)
  • LEGO Licensing (licence agreements for the manufacture of children's clothes, books, films, etc.).

The Early Years in the LEGO Group's History

The LEGO story began in 1932 - in fact even earlier, when the company's founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, bought the Billund carpentry and joinery business in 1916. At that time, Billund - located in Denmark's southern Jutland heathland - was a small country village. Today, the town has more than 6,000 inhabitants.

The impact of the Great Depression of the 1930īs, which began with the Wall Street crash of 1929, was felt throughout the industrialised world. And that, in turn, meant difficult times for what was then Denmark's main activity - farming. The farmers were Ole Kirk's most important customers and the consequence was that he came close to bankruptcy.

But Ole Kirk did not give up. He believed that, as a short-term solution when people could not afford to build houses, there was money to be made from producing wooden toys. After all, he reasoned, children always need toys. So, in 1932, Ole Kirk and a handful of employees began to make wooden toys in the little workshop.

A Name for the Company and its Products

In 1934, Ole Kirk came up with a name for his toys and his workshop - "LEGO". It was derived from the Danish words "LEg GOdt", which mean "play well". Later it was discovered that, in Latin, the meanings of "lego" include "I put together" and "I read".

Running his business under the slogan "Only the best is good enough", Ole Kirk gradually achieved success selling his well-made, sturdy wooden toys to toy retailers all over Denmark and through them, to Danish consumers. It was a tough struggle during the first few years, but it was at that time that the foundations were laid for the company's international success.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen (GKC), son of the founder, was active in the company from 1932. He was then only 12, but helped out in the workshop when he was not at school - on alternate days. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen started to work full-time at the workshop in 1934, in his fourteenth year. His ambition to become a motor mechanic was abandoned, in favour of an active commitment to his father's company, which he later took to the top.

From the end of the 1930īs, the LEGO range was extended to include such wooden toys as vehicles, animals and yo-yos. During the 1940īs, the company manufactured around 150 different products. The workshop became a small factory and by 1950, the number of employees had increased to 65.

New Materials, New Methods

Many new raw materials and industrial processes were developed around the world during the Second World War. This trend did not, however, have a noticeable impact on the LEGO company, in a land occupied by the Germans and in which there was a ban on the import of toys.

One of these new materials, later to prove revolutionary, was plastic. Ole Kirk realised that there was great potential in the manufacture of LEGO products from plastics and acquired the company's first injection moulding machine as early as 1947. Plastic toys, rattles, small dolls, animals and building bricks - joined wooden products in the LEGO range.

Rather primitive forerunners of the LEGO brick were launched in 1949. These were building elements with four or eight studs, sold in Denmark under the name "Automatic Binding Bricks". The elements, renamed "LEGO Bricks" some years later, were mainly used for building simple structures like towers and walls.

The LEGO System of Play

In the early 1950īs, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen developed "the LEGO System of Play". This system, using the LEGO brick building system but with a greater variety of elements, was the basis for the LEGO concept that we know today. The products were marketed in boxes that, apart from LEGO bricks, also contained small moulded cars, figures and a cardboard town map. The opportunities for play with LEGO elements were extended.

These products were launched on the Danish market in 1955. Some toy retailers were less than enthusiastic about their potential but, as time showed, their assessment was wrong.

In 1957, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen came up with an epoch-making discovery that was protected by international patents from 1958 onwards. His invention was the internal tubes that increased the bricks' clutching power. This improvement enhanced their stability and opened the way to putting them together in an almost infinite number of combinations.

Exports to Germany had begun in 1956, but international sales really took off in 1960, when sales companies were established in various European countries, including Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Sweden, as well as Germany.

The year 1960 also saw the destruction of the LEGO Company's wooden products warehouse by fire. The management then decided to stop production of wooden toys and to concentrate all the company's resources on the further development, production and marketing of the LEGO System of Play.

The technical quality of the elements was further improved in 1963, with the replacement of cellulose acetate as the primary raw material by ABS plastics.

Developing a Product

Today, LEGO products are sold in more than 60,000 shops in 138 countries and the LEGO Group has for many years been one of the leading names in the international toy industry. We currently occupy a mid-league position among the world's "Top Ten" toy manufacturers - as the only European representative.

The 1996 range comprises 459 sets, put together from 1,686 elements (not counting colour differences). There are four product programmes - DUPLO, LEGO SYSTEM, LEGO TECHNIC and LEGO DACTA.

Nearly all the elements from the four programmes can be combined - including the elements manufactured in the 1950īs. And around 110 billion elements were moulded between 1949 and 1990...

The LEGO Group is continually renewing itself: new ideas, new sets, new elements. In that way, children always have new ways of building, new ways of playing - and new ways of thinking and learning.

Our aim is to design products that satisfy children's fundamental needs. Everything we make is of a high technical quality and has to be of great play and educational value. "We don't have to be the biggest, but we want to be the best," said Godtfred Kirk Christiansen on one occasion. His words are still valid.

Principles with Perspective

We take the needs and the development of children seriously. That is the basic concept behind the large and growing LEGO assortment, which offers rich opportunities for varied building and play. Every LEGO set, both basic and model sets, appeal to children's creativity. They are stimulated to build different things from the elements - the only limit is their own imagination.

Our vision is that people all over the world experience positive, happy associations every time they see a LEGO logo, see a LEGO element or hold it in their hand. Imagination, exuberance, spontaneity, self-expression, quality - these are the words we wish to link with the LEGO name, together with values such as development, caring and innovation.

LEGO activity is many things. It can be free self-expression with a pile of LEGO Bricks, or a building project with a specific set of instructions - a challenge to the child. A single principle applies to all LEGO products: children must learn and develop their world as they play.

LEGOLAND Billund

LEGOLAND Park in Billund is a family park containing LEGO models of buildings and townscapes from many different countries, built from a total of more than 44 million LEGO Bricks.

The Park was opened in 1968 and quickly became Denmark's largest tourist attraction outside Copenhagen. It attracts around 1.2 million visitors each year during its outdoor season, from early April to early October.

The indoor exhibitions at LEGOLAND Billund include large new LEGO Theme Shows each year - displays put together with great creativity and attention to detail. There are also collections of old mechanical toys and antique dolls, as well as the Irish dollīs house "Titania's Palace".

LEGOLAND Parks outside Denmark

The first LEGOLAND park outside Denmark will be LEGOLAND Windsor, in Great Britain, which is to open at the end of March 1996. LEGOLAND Windsor is 35 kilometres west of London with Windsor Castle being its closest neighbour. The park covers an area of 100,000 m2. The LEGO Group's total investment in the LEGOLAND Windsor project will be around DKK 800 million (approx. US$ 110 million).

The first LEGOLAND park in the USA will be located in Carlsbad, in southern California, north of San Diego. It will open its gates to the public in 1999.

The LEGO Group plans to open other parks all over the world. Openings will occur at a pace governed by project size and based on the experience gained from Billund and Windsor.

The LEGO Group today

Today, the LEGO Group comprises 50 companies on six continents. There are close to 9,000 employees, of whom 4,250 work in Denmark.

LEGO products are produced in Denmark, Switzerland, the USA, Brazil and Korea. All the companies in the LEGO Group are owned by the Danish Kirk Kristiansen family. There are no external shareholders. The main shareholder is Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (48), grandson of the founder. He has been President of LEGO A/S, the Group's international management company, since 1979. He is also Board Chairman of several LEGO companies.

The LEGO Group's Management Philosophy and Practice

The management system and organisational structure of the international LEGO Group is developing in pace with the growth that has been experienced in recent years - and the steadily tougher competition in the toy market. The idea behind a new concept, "Compass Management", that is being introduced throughout the Group during 1995/96 can be expressed in the following statement: "In a rapidly changing world, we believe that a key success criterion is our managers' commitment and readiness to decide quickly and effectively on relevant means, initiatives and corrective actions. This commitment must be supported by a shared global mindset, shared values, shared objectives and shared direction. Compass Management focuses on strategic dialogue and responsiveness to market needs through empowerment within a set of clear, agreed-upon targets."

An active life comes to an end

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen passed away in July 1995 at the age of 75, having committed more than 60 years of his life to the LEGO Group. His death marked the end of an epoch in Danish and international business life. In the period up to 1993 - first as entrepreneur and President and then, after 1979, as Board Chairman - Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was a vital force in the rapid development of the LEGO Group. His achievements were the creation of a superb product, a unique corporate culture and a world-class company.

In Billund, where he lived throughout his life, he was the first, and to date only, resident to be made a "freeman" (honorary citizen). This honour reflected the support given over the years to many social and cultural activities in and around Billund by the Kirk Christiansen family via the Ole Kirk Foundation.

The old motto - as relevant as ever

The driving force for all LEGO Group activities will always be a fundamental respect for children and their needs. This was also the motivation for the establishment of the LEGO Prize in 1985. This international award, worth DKK 1 million, cannot be applied for. It is presented annually to people and/or organisations that have made special efforts to improve the conditions under which children live. The prize may be shared between two or more recipients. Since 1985, 23 people and organisations in 17 countries have received the LEGO Prize.

"Only the best is good enough" - Ole Kirk Christiansen's old motto from the 1930s - is just as relevant today as ever.

© 1996 The LEGO Group
TM and ® Trademarks of the LEGO Group
Page last updated March 8, 1996.
Arrow
Go to top
manHome
Go Home