Ole Kirk

"Godtfred attended evening school for four years at the Technical School in Grindsted after the mandatory seven years of primary school, and at 19, in 1939, he had a short stay at the Handicraft School in Haslev, which was especially recognized in the construction field. The older brothers, Karl Georg and Johannes, trained as carpenters, while little brother Gerhardt became a dairyman. Ole Kirk actually preferred Godtfred to stay at the factory and help out, but the son insisted that he wanted a journeyman’s certificate like his brothers."

"Initially, sales of the toys did not go spectacularly. In the first year, Ole Kirk sold for only 4,000 kroner, which was far from enough to make ends meet. He suddenly faced a bankruptcy petition because he couldn’t pay his bills. Ole Kirk Kristiansen went around to family and friends in the area asking for help. He got it, even though people nearby frowned upon the master carpenter who made toys. It wasn’t really man’s work."

"When the war ended, it was challenging to obtain wood from Sweden for production, so Ole Kirk was in search of new raw materials. In 1947, a representative from Windsor, a machine factory in England, visited Copenhagen to demonstrate a plastic injection moulding machine. He spoke about the advantages of a new material—plastic—and carried with him plastic bricks from the English company Kiddicraft, which he suggested as a possibility to all the gathered potential customers."

"Ole Kirk bought a plastic injection molding machine because he believed there were many possibilities in the new material. The machine cost 30,000 kroner. It was 50 percent more than the company’s total profit in 1946. In other words, it was a very risky investment. Although LEGO was now selling 500,000 kroner worth of toys annually, expenses were also many, and cash reserves were low. On a random day in 1947, the company had a cash reserve of just 6,000 kroner and a bank debt of 150,000 kroner."