Employees at the company’s Billund location will be let go due to the overseas relocation of production

Citing an adjustment in connection with its post-Christmas low season, toy company Lego is eliminating 66 hourly-waged employees from its Lego Group factories in Billund.

Lego’s management announced the news today, saying the move was a ‘necessary adjustment’ related to the establishment of new facilities. This was done despite the company posting almost 1 billion kroner in profits in its half-year report – an increase of 23 percent over the same period in 2008.

The company posted sales of 4.4 billion kroner for all of 2008.

In connection with its half-year report, Lego announced the relocation of many operations at its Danish locations to new facilities in Mexico, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

‘In recent years we’ve maintained a high level of production at our Billund plant through both the low and high seasons,’ said Thomas Nielsen, vice president for Lego’s manufacturing and transition division.

‘This was necessary during the transitional period when the company's foreign factories were under construction. But that transitional phase has now been completed, and the foreign factories are producing as per schedule. The factories in Billund are therefore returning back to a normal production cycle,’ said Thomsen.

The affected employees will all be offered support in the form of development education or job search assistance, according to a statement from Lego.

Company chief executive Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, said Lego was doing well in spite of the financial crisis and that the redundancies could therefore be hard for many to accept.

‘But in a seasonal business like ours it’s natural that production fluctuates during the course of the year, and that should also be reflected in our employment,’ he said.

‘It’s happened before and it will happen in the future at all our factories. This year has been an exception due to retirements and the loss of temporary employees, so we unfortunately have to let some employees go,’ said Knudstorp.

The company’s press release on the firings did not specify when the action was scheduled to take place.

Lego currently has a total of approximately 3000 employees at its Billund location and an estimated 7000 employees worldwide.