Danish toymaker Lego Group reported a 56% increase in pretax profit for 2009, helped by strong sales of its Star Wars and Lego City product lines despite a stagnant global market.
Privately owned Lego, which is among the world's biggest toy manufacturers, rivalling such groups as Mattel and Hasbro, said it expected its good growth to continue this year.
'In 2009 the Lego Group increased its global market share to 4.8%,' said Lego, known for its colourful snap-together plastic building blocks. It did not give a market share figure for the previous year.
Pre-tax profits rose to 2.89 billion Danish crowns ($531.2m) in 2009 from 1.85 billion crowns in 2008 on a 22.4% increase in revenues to 11.66 billion crowns, the company said.
'Overall, the global toy market was stagnant in 2009,' Lego Group said. 'In the global toy market, continued stagnation is expected in 2010,' it said.
'Based on the company's position and the highly satisfactory developments in 2009, the froup expects the sales growth to continue in 2010,' the company added.
The strongest growth in sales in 2009 was in English-speaking markets, and Lego products saw strong growth in all of Europe and most of Asia, it said.
Lego got into the board games business in 2009, launching games in Britain and the Germany-speaking countries, and game sales exceeded expectations, the company said. Lego games will be released in North America and the rest of Europe this year, it added.
