The LEGO Group’s full 2020 annual financial results, by the numbers

The LEGO Group has revealed just how well it performed in 2020 – but to save you poring through its 69-page annual report, here’s a breakdown of all the key numbers.

Sales increased by 21% year-on-year, with revenues of 43.7 billion DKK (roughly £4.95 billion) – a 13% increase on 2019, or 16% when excluding the impact of exchanging foreign currencies. Operating profit and net profit both increased by 19%, reaching 12.9 billion DKK (£1.49 billion) and 9.9 billion DKK (£1.14 billion) respectively.

The company’s expenses rose from 85 million DKK (£9.79 million) in 2019 to 412 million DKK (£47.5 million) in 2020, resulting in a pre-tax profit of 12.5 billion DKK (£1.44 billion). Among those expenses were 3.3 billion DKK (£380 million) on licences and royalties, 8.4 billion DKK (£967 million) on employee salaries and pensions, and 937 million DKK (£108 million) on research and development.

It then paid 2.6 billion DKK (£299 million) in corporate income tax, representing a very minor rise on its 2.4 billion DKK (£276 million) tax bill for 2019. That’s because the company’s overall effective tax rate declined from 22.7% in 2019 to 20.7% in 2020, mainly due to changes in tax rules across its various global markets.

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The LEGO Group saw a 75.3% return on its invested capital in 2020, with its assets increasing to 37.2 billion DKK (£4.28 billion), compared to 34.9 billion DKK (£4.02 billion) in the year before. It then matched 2019’s investment of 1.8 billion DKK (£207 million) in property and equipment, increasing processing capacity in its Hungary and Mexico factories.

Its total number of employees also increased from 18,800 at the end of 2019 to 20,468 at the end of 2020, reversing the approximately 1,400 layoffs announced in 2017 following the LEGO Group’s first fall in sales in nearly a decade.

Dividends paid to the LEGO Group’s shareholders in April 2021 will remain consistent with those paid in April 2020, at 8 billion DKK (£921 million), or 400,000 DKK (£46,075) per 1,000 DKK (£115) of share capital. CEO Niels B. Christiansen and the Board of Directors were collectively remunerated to the tune of 51 million DKK (£5.87 million), representing a 20 million DKK (£2.3 million) rise on 2019.

The company’s Executive Leadership Team, meanwhile, received 128 million DKK (£14.7 million) in remuneration in 2020, across salaries, pensions and both short- and long-term incentives and bonuses. That figure also factors in 12 million DKK (£1.4 million) spent on severance payments and ‘other one-offs’.

You can dig even deeper into the full 2020 annual report by clicking here. Other key takeaways from this year’s finances include the five top-selling themes, a supremely successful launch for LEGO Super Mario, and a commitment to expanding the LEGO Group’s ever-growing retail presence with more than 100 new brand stores in 2021.

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Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

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