LEGO annual growth 15% in 2014

[brickpreviews]

“In 2014 we increased our sales by 15 percent. I am proud that we delivered high quality creative play experiences to millions of children all over the world. This resulted in a highly satisfactory result for us, and it remains our aspiration to be the best at what we do,” says Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, President and CEO of the LEGO Group"

Key 2014 results

• Revenue growth excluding foreign exchange impacts was 15% year over year on a local currency basis
  
• Revenue increased by 13% in DKK to DKK 28.6 billion against DKK 25.3 billion the year before
  
• The year's operating profit increased to DKK 9.7billion against DKK 8.3 billion in 2013 – an increase of 16%
  
• Net profit was DKK 7.0 billion compared to DKK 6.1 billion in 2013 – an increase of 15%
  
• Investments in property, plant and equipment amounted to DKK 3.1 billion in 2014 - an increase of 18% versus the previous year’s investment level
  
• Zero product recalls - for the 5th year running
  
• Injury rate 1.7 compared to 1.7 in 2013
  
• More than 90% of waste from production sites recycled
  
• The number of employees in the LEGO Group increased from 13,869 at the end of 2013 to 14,762 at the end of 2014
  

In 2014 the LEGO Group continued recent years’ strong growth in sales, outperforming the global toy market development. All LEGO Group market regions experienced double digit sales growth while the traditional toy market in most countries grew by low single digit rates.

Among the top selling lines in 2014 were core themes like LEGO® City, LEGO® Star Wars™ and LEGO Friends. LEGO Creator and LEGO Technic experienced high growth rates during the year, and a significant contributor to the strong sales growth in 2014 was THE LEGO® MOVIETM product line which launched in conjunction with the release of THE LEGO MOVIE feature film in early 2014. The product line performed strongly across the full year.

Source: http://www.lego.com/en-gb/aboutus/news-room/2015/february/lego-group-2014-annual-results

[fred67]

Interesting; I haven't been following for a few years - this is more comprehensive than the reports I'd been reading a few years ago, and it's interesting (and good) that they are including Net Profit Margin on their report.

I'm curious about their need to create and publish this report, though; that's usually only reserved for publicly traded companies. Perhaps the rules in Denmark are different?

I wish the report went back farther, though.

When we talk about how expensive LEGO is, the Net Profit Margin is the key indicator, there. It's easily shown that some products have > 50% profit margins (like CMFs), so there must be some sets with better value to drag that average down to below 25%. Interesting 10% jump in profit margin in 2012, though.

Whether or not LEGO is too expensive is an exercise for the reader, but the companies on Standard and Poor's 500 average around 8.5%. Of course, a company can kick butt on a 1% profit margin if they sell enough; some industries have much higher profit margins because they have far fewer sales... but TLG's got high sales AND high profit margins.

Well... I'm a capitalist, so good for them.

[TheLegGodt]

Here here! Profit is a measure of success and an important condition for continuity. And who doesn't want TLG to be succesful and succeed?

The market (includng us) will soon emough tell them if they stop liking their products. Just hoping that TLG in those situations knows how to interpret the signals.