Lego hopes for better year after first sales and profits fall since 2004

Danish toymaker Lego has posted its first fall in annual earnings and sales since 2004 after seeing profits tumble 18% in a "challenging" past year.

The group admitted it had put in a disappointing performance as it reported pre-tax profits of 10.2 billion Danish krone (€1.3 billion) against 12.4 billion Danish krone (€1.7 billion) the previous year.