LEGO®

The world’s leading toy maker.

Photograph: LEGO House FB Page / Legoland billund FB Page

Text: Mariano Anthony Davies

On 1 February 1916, at the age of 24, Ole Kirk Kristiansen bought Billund Maskinsnedkeri (Billund Woodworking and Carpentry Shop) for DKK 10,000. At the time, Billund was a community consisting of a handful of small farms and smallholdings/crofts, grocery shop, dairy, blacksmith, inn, mission hall, school, co-operative shop and a joinery factory. Ole Kirk married Kristine Sørensen in 1916, and the couple later had four children: Johannes, Karl Georg, Godtfred and Gerhardt.

The woodworking shop produced doors, windows, kitchen cabinets, cupboards, coffins, chests of drawers, tools for digging peat and bodywork for carts. These were all first-class quality craftsmanship, which was important to Ole Kirk. He also took on other larger projects – houses, farm buildings, the dairy in Billund and Randbøl, as well as mission halls and a new gallery for Grene Church.

LEGO® history

LEGO did not begin with plastic. Ole Kirk Kristiansen started the firm in 1932 as a maker of wooden toys, which he branded “LEGO” – a word concocted from the Danish “leg godt” meaning “play well”. Then he patented his plastic bricks in 1958 and died later the same year. Two years later, after a fire destroyed its wooden toy warehouse, the family chose to stick with plastic bricks.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the third of Ole Kirk Kristiansen’s five children, became the second-generation owner of the LEGO Group. He was an active player right from the outset of the company's history. He recalled as one of his earliest memories: “My first contribution to the company – not that I’m proud of it – was when my brother Karl Georg and I lit the glue heater. Unfortunately, some wood shavings caught fire and the whole building burned to the ground.” That was in 1924. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was four years old. However, by 1932, at the early beginnings of the toy adventure, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was already involved in the company and early on learns the values his father placed on the products.

Like his father, Godtfred Kirk studied at Haslev Technical College. His schoolwork included sketches of several models for toy cars, which he sent home as suggestions for new products during his stay at the school from 1939 to 1940. Later, Godtfred Kirk assumed more and more of the responsibility in the company and on his 30th birthday in 1950, he was appointed Junior Managing Director and seven years later, in 1957, he became Managing Director of the company - developing the LEGO® idea and creating LEGO® System of Play.

During the 1970s, a generational change was underway in the LEGO Group. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen left the role as Managing Director in 1973 to become Chairman of the Board of Directors of LEGO System A/S. Vagn Holck Andersen served as Managing Director from 1973 to 1979, acting as a liaison between Godtfred Kirk and his son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, who eventually succeeded him as CEO in 1979. Godtfred Kirk held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors until April 1993. He died two years later 13 July 1995.

The duck story

This is the story about how Ole Kirk Kristiansen´s focus on quality was handed from father to son in Godtfred Kirk Christiansen´s own words: One evening, when I came into the office, I said to my father: “It’s been a good day today, Dad. We’ve earned a little more.” “Oh,” said Dad, “what do you mean, lad?” “Well, I’ve just been to the station with two boxes of our toy ducks for the Danish Co-op. And normally they get three coats of varnish – clear varnish – but this time I only gave them two. I thought we could cut our costs because it was the Co-op. So, I saved the business a bit of money.” He looked at me: “Godtfred, don’t you know that’s wrong? I want you to drive up to the station and fetch those boxes back. Unpack them and give the ducks another coat of varnish. Then you’ll repack them and take them back to the station. You’re not going to bed until the work’s done – and you're getting no help. You’ll do it all on your own.” There was no arguing with Dad. And it was a lesson for me about what quality meant.

Millenium changes

LEGO nearly went under in 2003-2004 after branching into too many areas, such as children’s clothes and dolls. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, who became Chief Executive in 2004, sold the LEGO Theme Parks and refocused the firm on bricks and articulated “mini figures”.

Kjeld Kirk Christiansen took over in 2017 and LEGO once again continued to thrive, while its competitors struggled with the toy business’s ever-shifting fads.

Over the past 20 years, the company’s revenue has grown tenfold, reaching DKK 66 billion in 2023. A decade ago, it became the world’s largest toy maker, opening 147 shops (taking its total to 1,031) and building factories in both America and Vietnam. Sales in the first half of 2024 were up by 13%, even though the global toy market shrank last year.

So far, LEGO’s attempts to find a green alternative to plastic have not been successful. However, LEGO plans to make entirely sustainable bricks by 2030 and has already started manufacturing some pieces with a new plastic made from renewable energy and recycled materials. The company intends to reduce its carbon footprint by 37% by 2032 and achieve total carbon neutrality by 2050.

Family ownership enables the company to take a long-term view. A foundation owns 25% of the firm, and the Kristiansen family owns the rest.