LEGO STORE LONDON, LONDON TOURIST ATTRACTIONS, LEICESTER SQUARE
LEGO STORE LONDON, LONDON TOURIST ATTRACTIONS, LEICESTER SQUARE, Lego System A/S, doing business as The Lego Group (stylised as The LEGO Group), is a Danish family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark.[5] It is best known for the manufacture of Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks around the world, each known as Legoland, and operates numerous retail stores.
The company was founded on 10 August 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen.[6] The word lego is derived from the Danish words leg godt, meaning play well. In the first half of 2015, The Lego Group became the world's largest toy company by revenue, with sales amounting to US$2.1 billion, surpassing Mattel, which had US$1.9 billion in sales.[7][8] On 11 August 2017, Lego announced that Niels B. Christiansen would become the new CEO, effective 1 October of the same year. The history of Lego spans nearly 100 years, beginning with the creation of small wooden playthings during the early 20th century. Manufacturing of plastic Lego bricks began in Denmark in 1947, but since has grown to include factories throughout the world. In 1961, Lego was managed by Samsonite until 1972 in the United States and 1986 in Canada. In January 2014, a handwritten letter to Lego from a seven-year-old American girl, Charlotte Benjamin, received widespread attention in the media. In it the young author complained that there were more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls and observed that all the girls did was sit at home, go to the beach, and shop, and they had no jobs, but the boys went on adventures, worked, saved people … even swam with sharks.[33][34]
In June 2014, it was announced that Lego would be launching a new Research Institute collection featuring female scientists including a female chemist, palaeontologist, and astronomer.[34][35] The science-themed project was selected as the latest Lego Ideas winner, and was submitted by Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist in Stockholm.[36] Lego denied claims that the set was introduced to placate criticism of the company by activists, pointing to its Lego Ideas origins. The Research Institute range sold out within a week of its online release in August 2014. The BBC’s Tom de Castella reported that Kooijman was pleased with the set’s final design, despite the addition of face make-up to her original proposal, and that Becky Francis, professor of education and social justice at King's College London, who had been very, very disappointed by Lego Friends, is a fan.
Legoland Discovery Centre in Duisburg, Germany
The Lego Group has built eight amusement parks around the world, known as Legoland. Each park features large-scale Lego models of famous landmarks and miniature Lego models of famous cities, along with Lego themed rides. The first Legoland park was built in Lego's home town of Billund in Denmark. This was followed by Legoland Windsor in England, Legoland California in Carlsbad, US and Legoland Deutschland in Günzburg, Germany. In addition, Legoland Sierksdorf was opened in 1973, but soon closed in 1976.
In July 2005, the Lego Group announced that it had reached a deal with private investment company the Blackstone Group to sell all four parks for €375m to the Blackstone subsidiary Merlin Entertainments. Under the terms of the deal, The Lego Group would take a 30% share in Merlin Entertainments and positions on their board.[38] The sale of the theme parks was part of a wider strategy to restructure the company to focus on the core business of toy products.
In 2010, Merlin Entertainments opened the first Legoland water park at the Legoland California site. On 15 October 2011, Merlin Entertainments opened their first new Legoland park, Legoland Florida, in Winter Haven, Florida. It is the largest Legoland opened to date at 145 acres, and also only the second Legoland opened in the United States. The second Legoland water park was opened near the same location on 26 May 2012 after only 4 months of construction.
Merlin Entertainments opened their second new Legoland park in Nusajaya, Malaysia under the name Legoland Malaysia on 22 September 2012.[39] It is the first Legoland in Asia and was quickly followed by another Lego-themed water park in the same area. The first Lego hotel has also opened near the site. People who stay in the hotel will also get tickets to the theme park and water park.