Hollywood boosts toy company profits (From The Northern Echo)

Hollywood boosts toy company profits

9:00am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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A CONTINUING appetite for tie-ins with Hollywood blockbusters saw Lego record impressive sales and profits in the first six months of the year.

The Danish firm is on course for a sixth year of successive growth after sales jumped 34 per cent to 5.86 billion Danish kroner (£646.7m) in the first half of this year.

Profit before tax increased to 1.55 billion Danish kroner (£172.6m) compared with 927m Danish kroner (£102.3m) for the first half of last year.

It was helped by tie-ins with films including Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia, as well as existing big sellers such as Star Wars.

Lego is expecting a further boost with the launch of Harry Potter themed products in the run-up to Christmas.

More traditional products also sold well, with the Atlantis-themed range generating higher sales than expected.

Marko Illincic, managing director of Lego UK and Ireland, said: “The first six months of 2010 have once again seen strong results for Lego UK and, with the bulk of toy sales taking place from now until December, we are predicting another growth year.

“The launch of new Harry Potter products as well as Lego Universe, our major digital product launch, will further consolidate our positioning.”