Lego wants to build business with girls

(Reuters) - Nine-year-old Ida Fraende, who likes to play with Lego bricks, is not so unusual in Scandinavia but globally speaking she is not typical: Jorgen V. Knudstorp hopes to change that.

The Chief Executive of Europe's largest toymaker, who has brought the once-troubled group back to profit and renewed its growth ambitions, has a keen eye on the market where Mattel and Hasbro of the United States are the mom and pop.

Girls are an area where "we'll never stop trying," Knudstorp, who joined the family-owned firm in 2001 from consultancy McKinsey & Company, told Reuters.

"I think there is something that genetically skews us towards boys, but we can do better."

To win girls over Lego -- whose iconic plastic bricks have entertained children and wounded unwary barefoot parents since the late 1940s -- is working to change its mindset, and taking its bid for their custom online.

The firm founded in 1932 by carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen intends next year to launch an online Lego Universe, to tap into a booming market that has created successes such as Second Life and World of Warcraft.

The group which started out with wooden toys like ducks and trucks has recovered from a massive 1.9 billion Danish crowns ($388 million) loss in 2004 and managed to build market share in a stagnant global market.

 

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