A customer reaches for a box from the Lego Dots range at a Lego store in London, March 7, 2022.
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Lego revenue is on a tear.
The brickmaker posted a 21% revenue bump for the first half of the year, boosted once again by its now-stalwart lines like botanical bouquets, Formula 1 race cars and collectible sets.
Lego reported record first-half revenue of 41.9 billion Danish kroner, or about $6.54 billion, as part of its biannual earnings report on Tuesday. Operating profit rose 22% year over year to 10.9 billion Danish kroner, or roughly $1.7 billion, the company said.
The strong first half comes as Lego continues to expand its product catalog, capturing new customers and retaining its already avid fan base of brick builders.
So far this year, the company has launched its Smart Play platform — a new technology that enhances brick sets with sensors that can react to movement, play sound and light up — as well as its long-awaited partnership with Pokemon. It has also expanded its presence in the sports realm with its F1 and FIFA partnerships.
Gateways into the brand such as its line of botanical models and its ongoing partnership with Epic Games — which brings Lego to the digital space and elements from the popular video game Fortnite into the physical world — continue to draw in new consumers, the company said. And once they start building, CEO Niels Christiansen told CNBC, they explore other areas of the company’s portfolio.
“[New partnerships] bring in those who have not necessarily seen their passion point really that well represented in the Lego brand before,” Christiansen said .
“So I think that has recruited new consumers,” he said. “We’ve also seen that we retain consumers really, really well, and we’re selling more to those we have.”
Lego launched 332 new sets during the first six months of the year, another record high. All the while, Lego still produces legacy sets from years prior.
And Lego provides a range of price points for consumers. For fans of Star Wars, for example, there is a $30 set of N-1 Starfighter from the “The Mandalorian” that has a more simplistic, kid-friendly build design, and there’s another, more complicated set with nearly 2,000 pieces that retails for $250.
Christiansen said even amid macroeconomic uncertainty, the company is seeing strong sales at both ends of the pricing spectrum.
With its growing portfolio and diversity of pricing, Lego is seeking to cater to a wider demographic of consumers, from kids to adults and across genders.
“What is really nice is that we’re growing fast with kids now,” Christiansen said. “We’re also growing with adults. And the fact that we can master both and we can kind of cover the universe of consumers and not just a segment of it. I think that’s also been very crucial.”
