Lego to give all employees three days off after announcing huge profits increase

Danish company reported 140 per cent increase in their net profit for the first half of 2021

The tree is decorated with baubles, candy canes and candles (Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Wire)

Lego, the world's largest toymaker, has rewarded its 20,000 employees a special annual bonus and three additional days of holiday after earning massive profits this year.

The Denmark-based company reported a doubled operating profit for the first half of 2021 after the Covid-19 induced lockdowns were phased out.

This “has been an extraordinary year," and the company’s owners want to acknowledge employees’ contribution, Benjamin Hjorth, a spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg.

He added that the bonus amount would be paid to the staff in April 2022.

The family group reported a net profit of 6.3bn Danish kronor (£715m) for the first half of 2021, which is a 140 per cent increase from the same period in 2020.

While consumer sales grew 36 per cent amid the pandemic lockdown, revenues shot up 46 per cent to 23.0bn Danish kronor ( £ 2.70bn)in the same period. The company's LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Harry Potter were among some of the best-performing themes.

"Our year-on-year growth benefited from fewer COVID-related restrictions compared with 2020 as our factories operated uninterrupted and the majority of retail stores re-opened," Niels B Christiansen, the Lego Group CEO, said in a statement.

The family-run company opened more than 60 new stores in the first half of 2021, and more than 50 per cent of the stores were located in China. The Danish company founded by Kirk Kristiansen in 1932 has over 737 retail stores across the world.

In October, Lego pledged to make its toys free from gender bias after global research found children remain held back by embedded gender stereotypes.

Research commissioned by the company found that while girls were growing in confidence and eager to explore a wide range of activities, the same was not true of boys.