Lego shortage looms for Christmas as toy company struggles with orders

The Danish company has become the world's largest toymaker by sales, overtaking Mattel, the United States manufacturer whose toys include Barbie dolls. In November. 2015, the current factory in Monterrey, Mexico will begin its expansion that will add up to 190,000m2, with investments consisting of additional moulding, processing, packing, and warehousing.

The investment program also encompasses Lego's factories in Hungary and Denmark. According to this article from CNN, Lego will not be able to deliver all of the new orders coming from customers in the remainder of the year in a few markets in Europe.

In an interview with MarketWatch, Trangbaek said the shortage to only affect select countries in Europe.

The toy maker says its factories are running at full capacity thanks to the success of the Star Wars range.

Lego says most of its products should be available despite the shortage. The Legos for the American market is made in the Mexican plant mentioned earlier.

Each year a few Lego sets are in short supply and hard to find. Holiday demand for Lego doesn't seem to be reflected in the rest of the U.S. retail sector, as analysts predict slowing growth in holiday sales this year.

Lego head of marketing for Australia and New Zealand Troy Taylor said there could be no promise that the company would meet Christmas demand. Lego is not a public traded company and is owned by the founder's family.