Lego will raise its prices by 5 per cent next year, blaming the falling pound in the wake of the Brexit vote.
The Danish company will increase the prices it charges British retailers from New Year’s Day, but said it was up to shops to decide whether to pass on the cost to customers.
Lego, founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, has become the latest company to raise prices after the referendum vote on June 23 to leave the European Union.
In October, the food manufacturer Unilever threatened to increase the price of its products to British retailers by 10 per cent. This would have affected Marmite, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and PG Tips tea bags. Eventually the multinational backed down, with retail experts believing it had compromised with supermarkets over the scale of its price increases.
Apple raised its UK prices by 20 per cent and last month Toblerone increased the distance between the chocolate bar’s peaks to reduce costs. The change applies only to the Swiss company’s products in Britain and was made because of the “higher costs for ingredients” due to the falling pound. The move by its owners, Mondelez International, which also owns Cadbury, meant that the bars cost the same but went down in weight with 400g to 360g and 170g to 150g.
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Headquartered in Billund, Denmark, Lego used to have a factory in Wrexham, north Wales, but closed it in 1999. It continues to maintain UK offices in London and Slough, Berkshire, near its theme park in Windsor. It has moulding factories in Denmark as well as Hungary, Mexico and China.