Lego posts strong H1 double-digit growth in major markets

Christiansen said during the first half the company attracted new builders of all ages who turned to Lego play to help them through difficult times.

During the first half of 2020, the group unveiled Lego Super Mario, an entirely new play experience that blends digital and physical play. It also launched Lego Monkie Kid, the first theme designed around Chinese folklore to make the brand and products more relevant to local consumers.

On enhancing digital engagement, in the first six months, downloads of Lego digital building instructions doubled to 2 million and every two seconds a piece of content was shared on Lego Life, a digital play app, which has more than 9 million users.

Visitors to the Lego.com e-commerce platform doubled to more than 100 million in the first half of 2020, compared with the same period a year ago, a key factor fuelling its online sales. In China, Lego renovated its Tmall store into its flagship store in August as a directly operated e-commerce platform to bring more innovated products and experiences for consumers in China.

The company plans to continue to expand offline.

It is on track to open about 120 new retail stores in 2020, 80 of those in China. During the first half, it opened 46 retail stores, 30 in China.

The CEO is confident of the rising opportunities for an omnichannel business model.

"We will continue to invest in upgrading our e-commerce capabilities to support both our retail partners and own platform and continue to invest in creating fantastic physical brand experiences for shoppers and fans," said Christiansen.