The LEGO® 2001 Annual Report, recently released, reflects how popular Bionicle™ is, and how much the line has helped the toy company financially over the last year. Bottom line: sales up, expenses down, and more Bionicle expected.

The four-page document provides synopses of annual sales, changes the company has undertaken to become profitable again, and some bottom-line numbers certain to put smiles on the faces of LEGO management. For example, sales last year rose 1.2 billion Danish Kroner (DKK), or about US$141 million, to US$1.25 billion. Higher sales to the American market were the largest factor, but Asia/Pacific and virtually all European markets contributed substantially as well. Operating costs also decreased by about US$35,000, and all the figures boil down to a positive profit margin of 4%. By contrast, the company's 2000 yearly balance was in the red by nearly US$100 million.

Giving some indication of how important Bionicle is to the company, Tahu, Kohrak, and Matau grace the first page of the report, next to a quote by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and Poul Ploughmann. Under the Products paragraph, the report states, "The sharp rise in sales was due especially to such product series as Harry Potter, Bob the Builder, LEGO BIONICLE and the more classic LEGO products - all of which contributed handsomely to the year's result."

Looking toward the future, "optimism is based on our focus on the market's most popular products, a series of powerful new launches, and our new-found level of production flexibility." And 2002 results are expected to be even better than 2001.

Based upon this rosy outlook, there seems no reason why the Bionicle line shouldn't be with us for some time to come.

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