Danish toymaker giant Lego has marked a second straight year of steady profit growth, the company announced in its 2010 Annual Report on Thursday.
The company earned 3.7 billion Danish kroner (691.78 million U.S. dollars) in net profit in 2010, up from 2.2 billion Danish kroner (410.91 million dollars) in 2009, and 1.3 billion Danish kroner in 2008 (243.06 million dollars).
Its 2010 revenue stood at 16 billion Danish kroner (2.98 billion dollars), representing a 37 percent increase from 11.6 billion Danish kroner (2.16 billion dollars ) the previous year.
The result reflects Lego's growing global presence, particularly in English-speaking markets.
The company has cornered 5.9 percent global market share as of end-2010, up 1.1 percent since 2009, ranking it amongst the world's biggest toy manufacturers.
"The extensive growth on the English-speaking markets seen in recent years was further reinforced in 2010," Joergen Vig Knudstorp, President and CEO, Lego, stated in the report.
He noted especial growth in North America, Eastern Europe, Japan and the UK.
Lego is a privately-owned Danish company famous for its snap-fitting, colorful, building- bricks for children. The company claims it sells over seven Lego sets per second, and that some 400 million adults and children would have played with Lego bricks in 2010.
It also began manufacturing boardgames in 2009, which it released into the lucrative North America market last year.
In 2010, Lego's traditional games such as "LEGO City" and "LEGO Star Wars" were its best-selling lines, but its online, paying, multi-player games, introduced late in the year, are said to have had nominal impact on profits.
The figures indicate that the global toy market expanded last year, even though Lego had, in its 2009 annual report, predicted "stagnation" in the market in 2010.
For 2011, Lego is predicting "a slight increase in the global market for traditional toys," and expects continued sales growth but at a lower level than last year.
It expects most sales in North America and Europe, but also in "smaller, yet rapidly growing new markets," the company said.
