Lego (Billund, Denmark) is cutting 1400 jobs due to sales declines. Those job cuts amount to about 8 percent of the company’s total employees. Details were not yet available regarding which jobs will be cut.
"We have now pressed the reset-button for the entire group," Lego Group Chairman Jørgen Vig Knudstorp said. "This means we will build a smaller and less complex organisation than we have today … We are very sorry to make changes which may interfere with the lives of many of our colleagues.”
While the company does not have plans to close any of its bricks-and-mortar stores, it does plan to cut less profitable products, however it also has plans to introduce new products, many of which will integrate technology and digital aspects.
According to USA Today, the sales declines are fueled by the shift of more children turning to digital and electronic devices rather than physical toys. For the first half of the year, the company saw sales in the U.S. and parts of Europe fall, while those in China grew by double digits.