Download reports from the LEGO Group below: Download our Responsibility Report: Global Reporting Initiative Index 2015 Global Reporting Initiative Index 2014 Global Reporting Initiative Index 2013 From tyre making to moon-walking, a few fun facts about Lego, one of the world's best-known toy companies. 130 - The number of countries where Lego products are sold. 7 - the number of Lego sets that are sold every second. During Christmas, almost 28 sets are sold every second. 1932 - The year Lego was founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who created the name from the first two letters of the words "Leg Godt", Danish for "Play Well". 40 billion - The number of Lego men who have been produced since the figures were first introduced in 1978. They all had yellow faces until 2003, when a skin-coloured range was developed. 40,000,000,000 - Number of Lego bricks you would need to build a column reaching to the Moon. 75 - The average number of Lego bricks owned by each person on Earth.
5 billion - Hours spent by children around the world playing with Lego each year. 381 million - Number of tyres made by Lego in 2010, making it the world's biggest tyre manufacturer. 485 bilion - Number of pieces of Lego which have been made since the company was started. 4 - Number of Legoland theme parks - in Denmark, Germany, Windsor and California. £1.84bn - Lego's sales in 2010, a 32pc increase on the previous year. Retail vacancies at Telegraph Jobs News by Sector » Richard Buxton: 'Why I've bought Tesco shares' Virgin customers told: we're moving you to TalkTalk and you'll lose your email The biggest companies in the world in 2015 The Fortune Global 500 has been released – the annual ranking of the largest companies in the world by revenues. Here is a list of the 20 biggest The Big Short hits UK cinemas: these are the best films about business The Big Short, the film adaptation of Michael Lewis' book of the same name about the causes of the financial crisis, opens in UK cinemas this weekend.
How will the story stack up against the greatest films about business? These are the most valuable start-ups in the world In pics: Some fledgling firms have reached valuations in the tens of billions. These are the 20 priciest of them all Starbucks' secret menu - the drinks you didn't know you can ask for There are over 87,000 different drink combinations at Starbucks, according to the coffee retailer’s website. How many of them do you know? remedies to Harry Potter-inspired beverages, we highlight the weird and the wonderful brews and infusions. Revealed: the weirdest sub-genres on Netflix From 'scary cult movies from the 1980s' to 'coming-of-age animal tales', Netflix has every niche covered. Revealed: The 20 best countries in the world to do business Forbes's annual index assess countries by a range of factors from taxes and technology to red tape and innovation. These are the top 20 countries for What are the super-rich planning for Valentine's Day?
From a rare pair of Gucci shoes, to spending £110,000 releasing an album, Britain's wealthiest are pulling out all the stops First rate rise in 'August 2019' - latest market prediction Briefing: Predictions saw a huge shift this week. We explain why - and what it means for mortgages and savings The world's 10 most expensive cities 2015 New data: Discover the priciest cities around the globe for luxury property. Tables: The cheapest places to buy an Isa Our colour-coded tables show at a glance which investment shop will beLego A/S said net income jumped 31 percent last year as a new video game helped Europe’s biggest toymaker combine traditional brickbuilding with console playing.Net income rose to 9.2 billion kroner ($1.34 billion) in 2015 from 7 billion kroner a year earlier, the Billund, Denmark-based company said Tuesday. Profit outpaced sales, which expanded 25 percent to 35.8 billion kroner. Lego said sales grew by a double-digit percentage rate in all its regions, including the U.S., faster than the toy industry’s expansion.
Its Lego Dimensions sets combine characters such as the Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu with Wonder Woman and Bart Simpson in a game that involves both computers and plastic figures. More versions will come out this year, according to Chief Executive Officer Joergen Vig Knudstorp said. “We’ll keep looking at new ways integrate the physical and the digital sides of playing.” he said in a phone interview. Lego, whose annual profit exceeds that of Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc. combined, is outpacing the two largest U.S. toymakers, which may be considering a merger. Mattel recently reported full-year sales fell 5 percent to $5.7 billion, and Hasbro has said that 2015 sales rose 4 percent to $4.45 billion.“Surpassing them in size doesn’t give us any particular joy because we just want to be best at what we do,” the CEO said. “It’s not crucial for us to be biggest. We focus more narrowly on the building block.”The company added 2,500 employees in 2015, ending the year with more than 17,000.
Two years ago, in 2011, 90 percent of Lego's consumers were boys. A tough statistic to swallow for those of us who grew up playing with Lego's gender-neutral buckets of bricks. But the statistic came straight from Lego, which was then focused on boys with franchised sets based on properties like Star Wars and The Avengers after weathering a disastrous period in the 1990s that left the company on the brink of collapse. "Construction had never worked for girls, for whatever reason," says Garrick Johnson, a toy analyst for BMO Capitol Markets. "It took [Lego] four years of research to figure out how to address the girls' market, how to attack it the right way." Lego Friends turned out to be one of the biggest successes in Lego's history. They're five adorable little dolls with distinctive names and storylines and sets that encourage girls to build karate studios, beauty parlors and veterinary offices. The line doubled sales expectations in 2012, the year it launched. Sales to girls tripled in just that year.
Johnson says the company carefully studied differences between how girls and boys play. "When boys build a construction set, they'll build a castle, let's say, and they'll play with the finished product on the outside. When girls build construction sets, they tend to play on the inside." And research showed that girls loved little details, says Lego brand relations manager Amanda Santoro. "When we were testing this, we asked girls what would you like to see in a Lego school?" she said, as she showed off the line at Toy Fair, the massive industry event held each year in New York City. "Of course, they said an art studio. So we see a lot of detail here with the different paint canisters and the canvas here [a Friend] is creating." David Pickett blogs about Legos at Thinking Brickly, where he's criticized the Lego Friends' gender implications. "Their legs can't move independently, so they move as one big block," he points out. That's not the case with "minifigs" — the classic Lego minifigures with stocky little torsos, snap-off heads, and feet designed to click onto Lego blocks.
Additionally, Lego Friends cannot turn their wrists. "That sort of sends a message about what we expect women being able to do physically," Pickett notes. Lego Friends triggered the ire of Joy Pochatila, a scientist and mother of two small girls. Her first reaction to the line was dismissive. "Why can't they just play with regular Legos? Why does it have to be girl-driven?" she wondered. But Pochatila also was dismayed by how many of the regular sets revolve around male superheroes. "You don't see a Wonder Woman set," she points out. Her husband, Davis Evans, is a staunch Lego defender. When presented with the minifigs' skewed gender numbers, he argued that the androgynous figures could be read as female. Pochatila said she'd prefer a few more specifically female figures, ones that reflect a real-life ratio. And it's hard, she admitted, to argue with Lego Friends' appeal, the complexity of their sets and their overall message of empowerment. The success of the girl-centric Lego Friends has led to little girl dolls popping up in construction sets all over the place, including pink ones from Mega Blocks and Mattel's Barbie.