Lego A/S System , running the business as a Lego Group (styled as LEGO Group ), is a Danish family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. Best known for the manufacture of Lego-branded toys, which mostly consist of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks around the world, each known as Legoland, and operates many retail stores.
The company was founded on August 10, 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. The word "lego" comes from the Danish term "leg godt", which means "to play well". In the first half of 2015, The Lego Group became the world's largest toy company based on revenue, with sales of US $ 2.1 billion, surpassing Mattel, which had sales of US $ 1.9 billion. On August 11, 2017, Lego announced that Niels B. Christiansen would become the new CEO, effective October 1 in the same year.
Video The Lego Group
Histori
Lego's history covers nearly 100 years, beginning with the creation of small wooden toys during the early 20th century. The manufacture of Lego plastic bricks started in Denmark in 1947, but has since grown to include factories around the world.
Maps The Lego Group
Logo
Di bawah ini adalah gambar sejarah logo Lego di seluruh keberadaan perusahaan.
Merek dagang dan paten
Since the end of the Lego patent that last stood in 1989, a number of companies have produced bricks similar to Lego bricks. Tyco Toys toy company produces such bricks for a while; Other competitors include Mega Bloks and Best-Lock. This competitor's product is usually compatible with Lego bricks, and is often marketed at a lower cost than a Lego device.
One such competitor is Coko, produced by Chinese company Tianjin Coko Toy Co., Ltd. In 2002, the Swiss subsidiary of Lego Group Interlego AG sued the company for copyright infringement. A trial found many broken Coko bricks; Coko was ordered to stop making breaking bricks, publish an official apology in Beijing Daily, and pay a small fee in damages to Interlego. At appeal, the Beijing People's High Court upheld the court's verdict.
In 2003, The Lego Group won a lawsuit in Norway against the Biltema marketing group for the sale of Coko products, arguing that the company used product confusion for marketing purposes.
Also in 2003, large shipments of products such as Lego marketed under the name "Enlighten" were seized by the Finnish customs authorities. Enlighten product packaging is similar to the official packaging of Lego. Their Chinese manufacturer fails to appear in court, and thus Lego wins a default action ordering the destruction of shipments. Lego Group markets bills to throw away 54,000 sets, citing the desire to avoid brand confusion and protect consumers from potentially lower products.
In 2004, Best-Lock Construction Toys overcame the patent challenge of Lego in Oberlandesgericht, Hamburg.
The Lego Group has tried to trademark "Lego Indicia", a Lego-studded look, hoping to stop production of Mega Bloks. On May 24, 2002, the Canadian Federal Court dismissed the case, insisting that the design was functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection. The request for the Lego Group was dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal on 14 July 2003. In October 2005, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that "Trademark Law should not be used to perpetuate the monopoly rights enjoyed under expired patents" and withholds that Mega Bloks can continue to produce their bricks.
Due to the fierce competition of counterfeit products, the company always responds by being proactive in patenting them and owning more than 600 design patents granted by the United States on their behalf.
Environmental issues
Lego recognizes the impact of its operations on the environment, particularly in areas such as climate change, resource use and energy and waste. All factory locations are certified in accordance with ISO 14001 environmental standards. The first wind turbine Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore Germany began generating electricity in February 2015, which will help The Lego Group achieve its 100% based goal on renewable energy by 2020. The company claims to recycle repeated 90% of its waste and has made its operation almost a third more energy efficient over a five-year period ending December 31, 2013. It is looking for crude alternatives as raw material for bricks. This resulted in the formation in June 2015, the LEGO Sustainable Materials Center, which is expected to recruit more than 100 employees, as a significant step towards the ambition of 2030 to find and implement sustainable alternatives to current materials.
In 2011, Lego was subject to pressure from Greenpeace's environmental campaign organization, which reportedly agreed to drop Asia Pulp and Paper suppliers, and promised to use only packaging materials certified by the Forest Stewardship Council in the future. Environmental groups have accused Lego, Hasbro, Mattel and Disney of using packaging materials sourced from trees cleared from Indonesia's rainforest.
Lego partnered with Royal Dutch Shell oil company in the 1960s, using the company logo in several sets of its construction. The partnership continued into the 1990s, and renewed in 2011. In July 2014, Greenpeace launched a global campaign to persuade Lego to stop producing toys that carry the Shell oil company logo in response to Shell's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic. Shell PR Company rewards the most recent two year deal with Lego at $ 116 million, and reports that Shell achieved a 7.5% worldwide sales increase during a promotional video from Iris International. Lego announces that when the last contract between the two companies ends it will not update it.
As of August 2014, more than 750,000 people worldwide have signed the petition of Greenpeace asking Lego to terminate his partnership with Shell. Lego responded by saying they "hope that Shell fulfills their responsibilities wherever they operate" and that they "intend to fulfill a long-term contract with Shell, which we entered in 2011." Meanwhile, Greenpeace produced a video campaign against Shell's partnership; it received extensive press coverage and was seen over six million times on YouTube. In October 2014, Lego announced that it would not renew its promotional contract with Royal Dutch Shell but did not say when the existing contract with Shell was over. Greenpeace claimed the decision in response to the campaign.
Gender equality
In January 2014, a handwritten letter to Lego from a seven-year-old American girl, Charlotte Benjamin, received widespread attention in the media. In it young writers complain that there are "more Lego boys and almost all Lego girls" and observe that "all the girls sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and they have no job, but the kids continue adventure, work, save people... even swim with sharks ".
In June 2014, it was announced that Lego will launch a new collection of "Research Institute" featuring female scientists including female chemists, paleontologists, and astronomers. This science-themed project was chosen as the newest Lego Ideas winner, and submitted by Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist in Stockholm. Lego denied the claim that the set was introduced to appease criticism from the company by activists, pointing to the origins of Lego Ideas. Range Research Institute sold out within a week of its online release in August 2014. The BBC's Tom de Castella reports that Kooijman is pleased with the final draft set, despite the additional face to his original proposal, and that Becky Francis, professor of education and social justice at King's College London, who has been "very, very disappointed" by Lego Friends, is a fan.
Legoland
The Lego Group has built eight amusement parks around the world, known as Legoland. Each park features a large-scale Lego model of famous landmarks and miniature Lego models from famous cities, along with Lego-themed rides. The first Legoland Park was built in the home town of Lego, Billund, in Denmark. This was followed by Legoland Windsor in England, Legoland California in Carlsbad, US and Legoland Deutschland in GÃÆ'¼nzburg, Germany. In addition, Legoland Sierksdorf opened in 1973, but soon closed in 1976.
In July 2005, the Lego Group announced that it had reached an agreement with private investment firm Blackstone Group to sell all four parks to EUR375m to its Blackstone subsidiary, Merlin Entertainments. Under the terms of the deal, The Lego Group will take a 30% stake in Merlin Entertainments and a position on their board. The sale of amusement parks is part of a broader strategy to restructure the company to focus on the core business of toy products.
In 2010, Merlin Entertainments opened the first Legoland water park on the Legoland California site. On October 15, 2011, Merlin Entertainments opened their first new Legoland park, Legoland Florida, in Winter Haven, Florida. It is the largest Legoland that opened to date on 145 acres, and also only the second Legoland opened in the United States. The second Legoland water park opened near the same site on May 26, 2012 after just 4 months of development.
Merlin Entertainments opens their second new Legoland park in Nusajaya, Malaysia with the name Legoland Malaysia on September 22, 2012. It is the first Legoland in Asia and is quickly followed by other Lego theme parks in the same area. The first Lego Hotel has also been opened nearby. People staying at the hotel will also get tickets to the playground and water recreation park.
Merlin Entertainments has also planned several new Legoland parks: Legoland Dubai, Legoland Nagoya (scheduled to open in 2015), and Legoland Korea (also scheduled to open in 2015). In addition, they have opened four new Legoland Discovery Centers, which took the Legoland concept and scaled it to fit the retail park environment.
Retail stores
The Lego Group operates 134 retail stores (83 in the United States, 14 in the UK, 11 in Germany, 10 in Canada, 7 in France, 2 in Spain, 2 in Austria, 2 in Italy, 2 in Denmark, 1 in belgium, 2 in China, and 1 in Sweden).
Europe
October 2002 saw a significant shift in Direct Lego Group's direct retail policy with the first opening called Lego Brand Store in Cologne, Germany. The second, in Milton Keynes, England, is followed quickly - several dozen more open worldwide over the next few years, and most of the existing stores have been renovated in the new Brand Shop . One of the hallmarks of these new stores is the entry of a "Pick-A-Brick" system that allows customers to purchase large quantities of individual bricks. How a customer buys a Lego slice on Pick-A-Brick is simple enough: the customer fills a cup or bag big or small with a Lego brick option from a large and varied selection and buys it. The opening of most of these stores, including the opening of 2003 in one of the Birmingham Bull Ring shopping centers in the UK, has been marked by the production of the new, special edition Lego DUPLO edition, and memorable. Lego opened the first brand store in Denmark's native Denmark in Copenhagen on December 13, 2010. There are 2 stores in Austria, 1 shop in Belgium, 12 stores in Germany, 13 stores in the UK, 6 stores in France, 2 stores in Spain, 1 shop in Sweden, and 1 shop in Denmark with a total of 38 stores in Europe. In 2016 2 stores have opened in Milan (Italy) and another in Verona (Italy)
North America
In 1992, when Mall of America opened in Bloomington, Minnesota, one of its main attractions was the Lego Imagination Center (LIC). The center of the imagination is a large Lego shop with a Lego statue display and a play area with a brick storage area. The store inventory includes many Lego set options for sale, including the set advertised in the Lego catalog as "Not Available in Any Store". The second center of imagination opens at Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Between 1999 and 2005, Lego opened 24 further stores in North America in 23 states. By 2016, there are 90 Lego stores that operate or will soon operate in North America in 32 US states and five Canadian provinces. These stores sell a variety of Lego merchandise, including minifigures, Pick-a-Brick, and special packaging minifigures.
India
The first Lego store in India opened in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in March 2014 by Funskool, under license from the Lego Group.
Financial results
In 2003, The Lego Group faced a budget deficit of 1.4 billion DKK (220 million USD at the time the current exchange rate was equal to EUR 175 million), causing Poul Plougmann to be replaced by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen as president. In the following year, nearly a thousand employees were dismissed, due to budget cuts. However, in October 2004, in reporting a larger deficit, Kristiansen also resigned as president, while placing DKK800 million of his personal funds into the company.
In 2005, The Lego Group reported a 2004 net loss of DKK1,931 million with total turnover, including the Legoland theme park, totaling DKK7,934 million.
For 2005, the company returned a profit of DKK702 million, after increasing its revenue by 12% to DKK7,050 million in 2005 against DKK6,315 million in 2004. It also cut spending and disposing of amusement parks and factories in Switzerland.
In 2011, sales for the company grew 11%, up from $ 2.847 billion in 2010 to $ 3.495 billion in 2011. The profit for the fiscal year 2011 increased from $ 661 million to $ 776 million. The profit increase was due to the enormous popularity of the new Ninjago brand, which became the company's biggest product introduction ever.
In 2012, it was reported that The Lego Group has become the world's most valuable toy company in front of Mattel for more than $ 14.6 billion.
The Lego Group sends DKK14.142m turnover in the first half of 2015 with an 18% increase compared to the same period of 2014 as measured in local currency (ie excluding the impact of foreign exchange rate changes). The net profit for the first half of 2015 is DKK3.553m compared to DKK2,715m for the first half of 2014. The first half-year sales are driven by double-digit growth in all geographic areas and strong product innovations on themes such as Lego Ninjago, Lego Elf and Lego Creator.
Lego Group announced on September 4, 2017 its intention to cut 1,400 jobs after reducing earnings and profits in the first half of this year, the first decline reported in 13 years. The revenue loss is due to a more competitive environment, where companies have to compete not only against their traditional competitors Mattel and Hasbro, but also against technology companies like Sony or Microsoft because more kids are using mobile devices for entertainment. Jobs cut the account for 8 percent of the company's total workforce.
See also
- the Danish portal
- Corporate portal
- The toy portal
- Lego Portal
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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