Europe's biggest traditional toy maker, Lego, has reported soaring sales of its colourful building bricks in 2010, especially in the US, Britain and Eastern Europe.
Last year, Lego sales jumped 37% to 16 billion kroner (€2.15 billion), with net profit soaring 69% to 3.72 billion kroner.
'The result is extremely satisfactory and is due in part to vigorous growth in markets such as the USA, UK, Russia and Eastern Europe,' Lego chief Joergen Vig Knudstorp said in a statement.
The Danish company, which in 2009 ranked fifth worldwide, said its global market share rose to 5.9% from 4.8% and it was now the world's fourth-largest toy manufacturer. Lego said it was growing much faster than the overall market, which was experiencing only a slow recovery.
The family-owned company, based in the western Danish town of Billund, has seen several years of strong growth after a deep crisis in 2003-2004, since when it has been rapidly expanding its factories in the Czech Republic and Mexico.
At the end of 2010, the company counted 8,365 employees, an increase of 1,079 from a year earlier. The global toy market is headed by world leader Mattel and runner-up Hasbro.
