Toy manufacturer Lego A/S (HQ: DK-7190 Billund; www.lego.com) recorded the biggest loss in its history in 2000, at EUR 134m. According to the company, the reasons for this loss, which was twice as high as predicted, were not only the difficult situation on the toy market as a whole but also the unsuccessful diversification of its product range. This takes in children´s books and also computer games and software. In future, the company will be focusing more on its core business, the colourful Lego bricks, once again. Over the next two years, the locations in Hohenwestedt/Germany and Budapest are to be closed, as are two production plants in Switzerland (Neuhof and Lättich). A total of 500 employees will be affected by the closures. All the measures introduced should ensure that the company is back in the black again by 2001 already.

Sales of Lego in 2000 ran at more or less the same level as in the previous year, at around EUR 250m. The last sales figure reported for the group (1999) was EUR 1.3 bn.