In every toy store the world over there is at least one aisle dedicated to LEGO, and that is no different in South Africa where the company continues to make strides after many years in the country.

With April right around the corner we got an opportunity to travel to the LEGO HQ here in South Africa to see how the year is treating the Danish toy company so far, and what we can look forward to for the rest of 2023.

Speaking to us is Miroslav Říha, country manager for The LEGO Group in South Africa, pictured below. Říha has been with LEGO for more than a decade and brings with him vast amounts of experience for a bold new future for LEGO, which is balancing a focus on kids toys, offerings for adults, sustainability, education, and more.

Hypertext: LEGO Friends was recently reinvented globally which included a substantial re-launch for the theme in South Africa. What has the reception been like so far?

Miroslav Říha: Friends is doing amazing. Just a few weeks ago I had a visit from the LEGO certified stores committee and have never seen a better execution of the LEGO Friends campaign. One of members even called me from the Menlyn store praising it.

LEGO is 90 years old but when we were doing consumer surveys years ago we found that LEGO is perceived by parents – and partially by the kids – as a toy for boys, which lead to the creation of Friends. Now Friends is 10 years old and we’re closing the gap on that perception.

The original storyline for Friends has now been updated to not only reflect modern times with modern lives, but also the next generation of kids who play with these news. The new generation of Friends characters is more inclusive than ever before so every single kid can find their favourite character from the cast. The storylines are also modernised for this reason. For example I got my first cell phone some 15 years ago as an adult, but that’s not how it is for kids today, so Friends reflects that. Because of this reasons LEGO founds that it was the best time to upgrade the story and bring some new life to the theme.

And, so far, the result has been huge. We are doing super well locally between the five LEGO stores and eighty some retail partners, there has been great reception to the new Friends.

I think LEGO Friends is also great because it’s a nice introduction to first building what there is in the instructions, and then thinking “oh, I can invent something on my own”. This building experience is aided by the roleplay where kids can see themselves in these characters, and create a LEGO world to suit them.

Hypertext: LEGO recently released its financial results showing impressive growth once again. Is that growth reflected in South Africa too?

Miroslav Říha: We are actually very close to our ambitions over the last few years both in terms of sales and customer satisfaction. For the latter we see positive results from both consumer and employee surveys so we’re happy overall.

The financial results of [the LEGO Group] are, of course, amazing, but if we go a bit deeper we see the percentage profit is partially below last year, caused by the various global situations like high inflation.

There were also price increases on LEGO due to the incoming costs of everything involved in manufacturing, including our investment in moving from plastic bags inside of LEGO sets to paper ones which are more expensive, but more sustainable.

From a global perspective, South Africa is a smaller market for LEGO so we have to work really hard to contribute to those positive results. We’re also, I think, doing an amazing job with avenues such as LEGO Education.

Hypertext: 2023 sees the return of several beloved themes such as Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings. Is LEGO looking forward to more of these adult themes this year?

Miroslav Říha: I am excited as much as any other theme, and I will tell you why: we are a toy manufacturer and our intention is to develop products for kids that succeed for them mainly. From education to problem solving and, of course, play. Our focus is always on the kids portfolio.

Our current adult customers knew about Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings and similar properties when they were kids, and because of this we see success with launches like the recent Rivendell set. All these themes that have been historically popular with adults make us really happy that we can bring those long-requested products to market, but our focus remains on the younger builders.

Our adult customers are some of our most important ambassadors because they can spread the love for LEGO, and these themes are a big part of that.

Hypertext: What can we look forward to for the rest of 2023?

Miroslav Říha: For kids we are excited to continue the success of Friends that kicked off the year, and kids can look forward to more exciting activations in 2023.

For adults the aforementioned and newly launched Rivendell set is really great and even more recently we announced the new Land Rover set, which I think will also be very successful.

I can’t mention specifics, but everyone should look out for some really cool superhero sets and a lot of great vehicle-based sets. We have run a few campaigns in the past based on vehicles which people of all ages love, and 2023 will be no different.

2023 will see LEGO as strong as ever.

I have to give a special mention to the Botanical Collection too. I have so many people come around to my house who are surprised that some of the flowers are actually made out of LEGO. We are used to seeing vehicles and blocky machinery rendered in LEGO, but it’s something else entirely for the natural shapes of plants to be done with the same plastic medium. When it first launched it blew my mind!

We’re seeing amazing success with the Botanical Collection, but at the same time, a lot of people are still unaware of these sets. At a media event last year I brought one of the Botanical Collection sets with me and many journalists had no idea the flower I brought with me was LEGO. It makes me really proud to see LEGO evolving in this way.

Some sets from the Botanical Collection are also designed to be built by more than one person with multiple instruction books in the box. Sharing the building experience has been a big push for LEGO because we believe that LEGO should be a social experience. For kids this also opens up opportunities for play not just with the finished toy, but during building too.

Hypertext: You started with LEGO in Europe before coming to Africa. How has this change in culture been for you?

Miroslav Říha: I have been in South Africa for coming up on two years now. I am coming from the Czech Republic, so the more Eastern part of Europe. I think the two have a quite similar sense of humour, which always helps when you can have an environment where you work hard but can also have fun.

In terms of the culture and behaviours, I think there is – for a lack of a better word – fear of management here. I have heard that you can’t really disagree with your manager here, but I am a person who really likes challenge… really likes a bit of conflict.

It took me more than a year to get to a stage where I am comfortable here, where everyone has an equal voice in the group, equal opportunities. I like for everyone to be open and honest, but the South African approach can be a bit too kind and reserved when brutal honestly may be better.

That has been the biggest problem for me, where people may agree when they should instead challenge. It may sound nice but it’s not necessarily what you want to challenge certain obstacles, or fix certain issues.

From a business perspective South Africa still lags behind some European markets when it comes to ecommerce, but that does mean that there is a healthy balance between in person retail and ecommerce.

From a shoppers’ perspective, South Africa is a much larger nation than the the Czech Republic, but we are still seeing more sales over there. This comes down to affordability and how parents differ. Over there we see parents who recognise the value of these toys because they played with them as children, but you may not see that here. Some South African parents may also not see the educational value of LEGO toys, so we’re doing a lot of work highlighting the value of play.

We’re trying to fix this in various ways, such as with LEGO events and showcases. It goes a long way in showing people what can be done with LEGO and we’ve seen this outreach yielding positive results especially with children that may have disabilities.

LEGO Education is doing an amazing job locally offering products and courses for free, and this helps us show kids who will become parents in the future the educational potential of these toys.