Skip Kodak, president at LEGO Systems, talks about an increase in sales, a focus on sustainability, and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in the Toy Book’s annual State of the Industry Q&A.
The Toy Book: The LEGO Group’s sales spiked 36% in the first half of 2021. How has the company’s strategic approach across multiple retail channels drive this revenue?
Skip Kodak: Our focus is to deliver great LEGO brand experiences that are relevant for targeted shopper and consumer audiences in all retail channels and platforms. We start with insights about shopper and consumer needs, and we identify strategic opportunities for our retail partners to grow sales and profit in physical, digital, and omnichannel environments. We constantly invest to test and learn with our partners to build future initiatives that maintain strong commercial momentum with all of our partners. Throughout 2021, our global, regional, and national teams executed in reliable and close partnership to drive increased sales on top of 2020’s record growth.
TB: How does the LEGO Group plan to continue its sustainability efforts?
SK: Sustainability is a critical focus for the LEGO Group. As the leading toy brand and top toy supplier globally, it’s incredibly important to our owner family that we lead the way toward a sustainable future with positive planet impact. Our core environmental efforts will focus on new and more planet-friendly materials development, further waste reduction across our full value chain, optimized material and resource use, transport efficiency, and protecting or track record of operating on 100% renewable energy sources, even as we grow. In the longer term, we recently announced our future Vietnam factory will be carbon neutral, due to significant on-site solar installations. And at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (aka COP26), we launched 10 “Building Instructions for a Better World,” informing world leaders what young people think should happen if we’re to tackle the climate crisis and create a more sustainable future.
TB: In what ways is the LEGO Group promoting diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the workplace?
SK: As a global company, the LEGO Group benefits from having a globally diverse team of more than 19,000 colleagues located around the world, giving us simultaneous benefits of global and local perspectives. In each local market, our talent acquisition and development strategies progress toward a workforce that is market representative. On a global basis, inclusion and unconscious bias training are deployed to improve psychological safety and feelings of belonging, which we measure in our annual People Pulse survey and publish in our annual Responsibility Report. Our Employee Advocacy Groups exist at global and local levels to empower under-represented communities and their allies to make the significant and subtle changes needed to establish a diverse and inclusive community for all LEGO Group colleagues.
Finally, we are undertaking new partnerships and talent pipelines to increase equity and access for all under-represented communities to careers in our wholesale and retail businesses, global operations, and global corporate functions. Like many companies, we are on a journey — with clear milestones, successes, and learnings as we continuously improve, invest, and innovate to nurture a diverse and inclusive working community.
This article was originally published in the February 2022 edition of the Toy Book. Click here to read the full issue!
