Redundancies are part of a strategy to reduce costs by E94m following a record loss last year

Redundancies are part of a strategy to reduce costs by E94m following a record loss last year

Lego has announced plans to revive the company following last year’s record loss of DKr1.4bn (E188m). Chief executive Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said he would cut 500 jobs by 2006 as part of measures to address the “serious earnings crisis” at the toy brick maker.

“Approximately one-third of these [500] cuts will be in Denmark. About 170 lay-offs will be implemented within the next few weeks, of these approximately 100 in Denmark,” he said. The company could not confirm at the time of going to press whether the losses would be in manufacturing.

Lego aims to reduce costs by DKr700m (E94m) and has initiated an action plan to secure its future. The measures include a radical reduction in development and production leadtimes, to halve the time taken from concept to product launch.