Lego's recipe for success is to combine innovation with optimisation of production across six factories around the world

Copenhagen (AFP) - Denmark’s Lego, the world’s number one toy maker, on Tuesday posted record sales and profits for its 2025 financial year, marking a “fantastic” year, despite global tensions, Lego’s CEO told AFP.

Last year, the group reported a 21 percent increase in net profit, reaching 16.7 billion kroner ($2.6 billion), the highest net profit the company’s ever recorded. Its revenue jumped 12 percent to 83.5 billion kroner.

“I wouldn’t say that the volatility and everything happening doesn’t impact us, but I think we have momentum behind taking markets in a way that we can grow even so,” Lego CEO Niels Christiansen told AFP in an interview.

“If oil prices are going up, then probably our raw material will be going up. If consumers get nervous, they tend to maybe be a little bit more reluctant to spend or spend a little bit slower,” Christiansen acknowledged.

“But if you’re successful in gaining more market share, then you can compensate for some of these negative impacts,” he added

Consumer sales rose 16 percent across all markets, including in China, where the group has returned to growth after investing for years.

The group noted in its annual report that in 2025 the toy market grew by seven percent.

“If you take the toy industry over the last three years, it has grown a little bit and has declined a little bit. So, it’s basically been flat over time. And even though it’s been flat, we have grown double digits every year,” Christiansen said.

- Close to market -

Christiansen said the company expected a “high single-digit” growth this year.

Lego’s recipe for success, as a privately-held family company, is to combine innovation with optimisation of its production across its six factories around the world.

“We produce close to markets and consumers,” he said, adding this allowed the company to start production late “so we know what really is in high demand”.

Lego, whose name is a contraction of the Danish for “play well”(“leg godt”), is also banking on partnerships – such as with Pokemon or FIFA – and technological innovation to win over consumers.

The company recently launched its “SMART Play” system after seven years of development and 20 patents.

The system features “smart” bricks able to light up or play sounds and react to movements.

“At one point in time, there were only square bricks. Then there were all kinds of shapes. Then there were minifigures. Then there were motors or motions in there. Every time that happened, it kind of put new modularity to the system and you could do more things,” Christiansen told AFP.

Headquartered in Billund in Denmark, Lego has 1,112 stores around the world.