STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOSWatch onCOPENHAGEN - Lego continued to take market share in the first six months of the year even as the toy market declined and Chinese consumers returned to stores at a slower pace than expected, the Denmark-based toymaker said on Wednesday.
"It has been a challenging six months for the toy industry," Chief Executive Niels Christiansen told Reuters."But we've taken market share and have grown 10% faster than the market." However Christiansen adjusted his forecast for sales growth this year to"somewhere in the single-digits," having in March forecast growth of a"high single-digit percentage".
The company did not raise prices for its Lego sets during the first half year and does not plan to do so, as freight and raw material costs had normalized, Christiansen said.The company opened 89 new stores in the first six months of the year and plans to open around 150 in total this year, bringing the global total to around 1,050, Christiansen said.