The LEGO Group, one of the world’s biggest toy companies, is headquartered in a small Danish town. Find out why the beloved construction toy company calls Billund its home, from an expert…
For a company as large as the LEGO Group, it may be surprising to learn their headquarters is in a quaint corner of the Danish countryside. The LEGO Group has been around for nearly 100 years, having been founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen in 1932. And in all those years, the company has always had its base in the small, rural town of Billund.
Billund before the LEGO Group was a humble affair. “It was flat, fairly barren, sort of moorland,” says LEGO Corporate Historian Signe Wiese Bundsbæk. “There would have been a lot of low-quality soil, a lot of wind from the west, a lot of sand, not that many trees. This was a difficult place for people to live and only consisted of six to eight farms. Even today, people from here tend to be hardworking, humble people and that comes from how it was growing up here.”
Despite the apparent unattractiveness of the land, the LEGO Group’s founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, came to town in 1916 and purchased a carpentry workshop, ultimately founding what would become the LEGO Group in 1932. During the Great Depression, he sought new ways to earn income, one of which was building wooden toys.
Upgrade your LEGO hobby! If you take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine, you’ll get each issue first and at a discount, plus other perks including a free digital subscription and the chance to win LEGO prizes every month.
“In the early days of the company,” Signe explains, “Ole Kirk had his family home and his workshop, and that was it.”
The small-scale operation allowed the company to be comfortable in Billund, so when a plastic injection moulding machine caught Ole Kirk’s eye, he had it delivered right to his Billund workshop.
That moulding machine kickstarted a chain of events that would eventually lead to the patenting of the LEGO brick in 1958. And as the little LEGO brick soared to monumental success, the family-owned company — now led by Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen — remained committed to its hometown.
As the LEGO Group grew, it invested in Billund, helping to grow the tiny town. Outside of expanding design and factory operations, one of the company’s biggest contributions was Billund Airport. Though it didn’t start out that way; it was originally a private airstrip.
“The airport started out as LEGO Airfield in 1962. Much cooler name,” Signe laughs. “Godtfred bought a plot of land north of Billund, pretty much right where the airport is now. So back then, it wasn’t that close to the centre because the town was much smaller.
“In the early days, it was a grass landing strip. Then he built one hangar and had maybe a couple of planes coming in a week. That was the size of it in the early days. It was LEGO-owned from 1962 to 1964.
“Then it became a publicly owned airport and has grown in size. The people of Billund appreciate it, too, because it is what is connecting the town to the world. It’s also the second largest airport in Denmark. But I do think we should bring back the old name.”
LEGOLAND Billund followed the airport, opening its gates in 1968 — a mere decade after the introduction of the LEGO brick. The theme park was originally intended to be just an outdoor showroom for the LEGO brick’s potential but quickly grew into one of Denmark’s biggest tourist attractions.
With an airport and theme park under its belt a whole decade before the advent of the minifigure, the LEGO Group was comfortably settled in Billund. Even as factories have popped up all over the world, from Czechia to Vietnam, the centre of it all remains in this still-quiet little Danish town.
LEGO House’s exclusive set for 2026, 40507 I Love Billund, celebrates the various sights and locations in Billund, which is continuing to grow with the construction of Innovation Campus and Kornmarken Campus.
To find our more about the new LEGO House exclusive, get Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine, Issue 137 when it launches on February 27. Blocks is part of LEGO House – you can make your own magazine cover in Character Creator.
And if you want to find out when new LEGO sets are announced, sign up to our free newsletter. Of course, if you really want to upgrad
e your LEGO hobby for the true insider experience, take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine for fans.
