Subject:
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U.S. Lego (Was Re: What is Samsonite Lego?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:38:11 GMT
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Viewed:
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2545 times
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> 1960's TLG wanted to expand to the USA and Canada. However, this was
> such a large market for a small company like TLG to get into, that it
> formed a licensing partnership with the Samsonite Corporation of Denver
> Colorado.
I'm wondering how accurate that explanation is. Doesn't the U.S. have
particularly high import tariffs[1]? So is it possible that Lego would have
been deemed shipping through U.S. import duties too expensive compared to
making the Lego in the country? The North American market was certainly
large enough for them to justify the cost of setting up manufacturing in
that continent, and if they were Europe-wide before that then surely they
weren't _that_ small. Is it also possible that having the product made by a
U.S. company (i.e. "LEGO by Samsonite") would also avoid further (or same)
duties slapped on by the U.S. government?
This is all idle speculation, of course. I don't profess to knowing in
detail U.S. trade policies of the last 30 years (or even what % of world
Lego sales were in N. America [2]), I just remember hearing that U.S. trade
policies protected its own industries particularly aggressively (which is
fair enough. It's a lucky country that has the resources to allow it to rely
on local product [4] ).
Paul
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shuttle/5168/
[1] I think that's what it's called, that amount that the government whacks
onto an imported item (to "protect" the local product). Import duty?
[2] Actually, does anybody here know roughly what proportion of Lego sold
(say, last year) in the world was sold in North America?
[3] Does anybody know why most Lego sets have a different title outside the
U.S.? Did they just not bother to make them the same, or was it intentional?
(in other words: ALWAYS give the set #'s please!!!!)
[4] Is Best-Lock made in the U.S.? ;)
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: U.S. Lego (Was Re: What is Samsonite Lego?)
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| I was always under the impression that a lot of European and other parts of the world countries had very high tariffs as well. We have NAFTA (North American Free trade Agreement) here that reduced a lot of the taxes, etc. between the US, Mexico, and (...) (25 years ago, 20-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: U.S. Lego (Was Re: What is Samsonite Lego?)
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| I'm sure there are a lot of nuances that went into this decision. The Danish company was only into its' 8th year of exporting it's product when it entered the US market. As to whether tariffs were a consideration, I'm sure they were. Even the sets (...) (25 years ago, 23-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: U.S. Lego (Was Re: What is Samsonite Lego?)
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| (...) I'm going to guess anywhere from 35 to 45%. Though that is for all of the Americas, which LEGO's US subsidiary is in charge of. (...) The local affiliate is in charge of naming the set. (...) Good question. Either the U.S. or U.K., or maybe (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jan-00, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | What is Samsonite Lego?
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| OK, someone recently asked me what Samsonite Lego is. LEGO, as we all know was founded in Denmark. By the mid 1950's, it was sold throughout the Scandanavian countries of Europe. In 1956 it started selling in West Germany, Europes largest market. By (...) (25 years ago, 19-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)
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