Bucking the pandemic trend LEGO plan to open 120 new shops worldwide

AS joke shop owners George and Fred Weasley unveil the newly released LEGO Diagon Alley Set as part of the Harry Potter collection (which includes the first appearance of Florean Fortescue), a spokesman for the Danish manufacturer told the BBC that it planned to open another 120 shops.

The lockdown and social distancing don’t seem to have affected the company which has reported half year sales of almost €2 billion and an increase in profits of 11 per cent which it attributes in part to the number of adults now purchasing more expensive sets.

There have been TV programmes on both sides of the Atlantic pitting teams against each other to build hugely imaginative diorama from millions of bricks and the enforced home stay seems to have encouraged people to revisit the bricks as a pastime.

Although there is plenty of online business for LEGO and major groups stock its product, it has seen queues outside many of its 612 stores which is why it wants to keep expanding despite the general trend of stores closing.