LEGO reacts to possible US tariffs: ‘We will find ways to deal with it’
The LEGO Group’s CEO says the company will ‘find ways to deal with’ the prospect of tariffs on products in the US, but the situation is ‘not what keeps me awake at night’.
President Donald Trump named Denmark as one of the countries that could face tariffs on exports to the US in January, but has yet to impose any such penalties. His latest tariffs affect China, where a blanket rate of 20% on exports is in place, and Mexico and Canada, where Trump imposed 25% tariffs last week – but then paused or rolled back tariffs on specific goods shortly after.
The LEGO Group currently has a factory in Mexico and is working towards opening a new factory in Virginia in 2027. At the moment, none of the tariffs implemented by Trump have affected the exporting of LEGO products into the US, says the LEGO Group’s CEO Niels B. Christiansen – but the company is prepared to deal with them should they arise.
“At this point in time, there are no tariffs,” Christiansen told AFP. “If they would come in and we would deem that they would be more of a permanent nature, then I think we will also find ways to deal with that.” He added the prospect of tariffs was ‘not what keeps me awake at night’.
“It’s not the first time we see those fluctuations and every time we’ve been able to not overreact,” Christiansen continued, noting that the priority for the LEGO Group is gaining market share – which is ‘way more important than whether we get tariffs or not’. The company today announced record profits in 2024, growing revenue by 13% and increasing consumer sales by 12%, while the wider toy market shrunk by 1% in comparison.
Christiansen told the Financial Times that the LEGO Group tends to ‘produce as late as possible’ to avoid storing excess inventory, so will not shore up supplies in the US to pre-empt tariffs further down the line. He pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic and spiralling raw material costs as recent examples of the LEGO Group weathering the storm ‘by not overreacting, and it’s the same approach here’.
Click here to learn more about the LEGO Group’s latest financial results. The company has also announced its best-selling themes for 2024 and revealed that it closed more LEGO Stores than it opened last year.
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We (Canadians) need a factory or warehouse in Canada somewhere and not onther one in the US, talking about the new one in “New Mexico.”