Miele teamed up with sustainability champions across the world to share knowledge, inspiration and successes. ‘Stories from our only home’ with Norbert Niederkofler is the first in a series of films that aim to inspire change. Discover how and why the 3-Star Michelin Chef has redesigned his menu and his restaurant from the ground up.
Want to learn more about sustainability at Miele? Take a look at this: https://www.miele.com/c/sustainability-3359.htm
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Miele concludes innovative social agreement with repairers
Miele Belgium presents an innovative social agreement. From now on, the technicians who repair household appliances at its customers can choose their own working hours, between 7 am and 10 pm. The regime allows for a four-day week at the same time. But the technicians can also opt for weekend work. As a result, Miele can also offer consumers more flexible hours to carry out repairs
Miele harvests the sun’s power from Gütersloh roofs
Miele further expands self-sufficiency in green electricity. At its headquarters in Gütersloh, the company is currently installing the second-largest roof-top PV array in the town, comprising around 2,400 PV modules. The installation will have a total output of around 900 kWp and will generate more than 750,000 kWh of electricity per year – sufficient to power some 250 households, each with an annual average consumption of 3,000 kWh. Construction work has already commenced, with the facility expected to enter service this year..
Miele subsidiary Agrilution ends business with automated greenhouses
Daily freshly harvested salads and herbs from an automatically controlled greenhouse (‘Plantcube’) – with this concept, the Munich-based start-up Agrilution wanted to bring the idea of vertical farming into the home. Since the end of 2019, this has been happening under the umbrella of the Miele Group. Now, the Gütersloh-based household appliance company has announced that it will no longer be continuing the business with the Plantcubes due to a lack of economic prospects. This affects almost 40 salaried as well as additional student employees, who have been given notice of termination due to the closure of the business on June 30, 2023. The approximately 650 users, who also purchased their seeds (‘Seedbars’) through Agrilution, will soon receive an offer to buy back their equipment.
Experts understand ‘vertical farming’ as the space-saving supply of fresh food via large, multi-storey greenhouses. Agrilution itself was founded in 2013, but then had to file for insolvency proceedings in 2019 after a financing round could not be realised as planned. After the opening of insolvency proceedings, Miele took over the brand, the know-how and almost all employees in a so-called asset deal and transferred them to the newly founded 100% subsidiary Agrilution Systems GmbH.
Over the past few years, with intensive financial and technical support from Miele, work has been done to guide the business model, product portfolio and workforce into a sustainable marketable future. ‘Unfortunately, however, it has since become apparent that demand has fallen far short of expectations,’ says Gernot Trettenbrein, Senior Vice President New Growth Factory, amongst others responsible for new business areas at Miele. In addition, this product was marketed at over 3,000 euros due to its technical complexity.
In order to make the Plantcube attractive to broader target groups, an additional series was to be launched at a significantly lower entry price. However, this could no longer be realised due to the skyrocketing costs of materials, energy and logistics. As a result, after careful consideration of all available options, the decision was made not to pursue the plantcube business any further. In conjunction with this, Agrilution’s business operations will cease on June 30, 2023. Miele would like to thank the Agrilution team for their dedicated service and wishes all employees the success they deserve in their future careers.
The dealers who marketed Agrilution’s Plantcube as resellers have already been informed separately by Agrilution, as have all end customers and other users. Furthermore, the company has announced that it will buy back all Plantcubes that are in use or still in stock. Detailed offers will follow within the next few weeks
Green product award to the Miele dishwasher
Tenth edition for the Green Product Award . In the kitchen category, the award went to the fully integrated Miele model G 7465 SCVi XXL AutoDos. The international jury appreciated “In particular, the transparency of energy and water consumption through the app involves the consumer who seeks greater sustainability and makes him responsible”. This is the new consumption panel in the Miele app, which displays how often a program is used weekly, monthly or annually and how much water and electricity it actually uses. The app also compares the average values of the programs and provides ecological advice.
The awards are organized by the Green Future Club, a network of sustainable innovators and experts with a vision for a near future where all products are sustainable. The club organizes awards, exhibitions and networking events, supports young designers and publishes the annual Green Trend Book with international best practices. Nils Bader , promoter of the award, emphasizes: “ With the awards, we present existing, future and, of course, sustainable alternatives and network the players. With the exhibition and the talks we want to surprise and show what is already possible. No one should do things randomly, but plan, design and ultimately consume with a different perspective in the future .”Innovative water feed for washing with less water
In the ECO programme, water consumption is reduced to 8.9 litres. This also means that less energy is required to heat the water, and you benefit from an energy-efficient dishwasher. The water savings are achieved through the intelligent design of the supply system and a new, highly efficient filter system. Additional insulation reduces thermal losses and thus the amount of energy required to heat the water.
Miele continues to grow – and builds production plant in the USA
Miele have announced an important step for future growth: With the new plant in the USA, we will manufacture the special range cookers and ovens for the USA, Canada and Mexico in close proximity to the market. This will not only save on shipping but will also free up new capacities at our existing production sites in Arnsberg, Bünde and Oelde. Start of production planned for end of 2024 / First expansion phase with
150 employees
The decision on the specific location will follow within the coming months
In order to continue and further strengthen its growth course, the Miele Group is expanding its production capacities. The next milestone is the Gütersloh-based family group’s first plant on the American continent, where ovens are to be manufactured for the USA, Canada and Mexico. For the world’s leading manufacturer of premium domestic appliances and machines for commercial use, this is the eighth production site outside Germany, out of a total of 16 plants.
Thanks to its high-quality ovens, hobs, steam cookers, cooker hoods and other attractive products, the business unit Cooking has been one of the Miele Group’s most important growth drivers for many years – most recently generating more than € 1.1 bn in sales, representing an increase of almost 13%. “We are planning for further increases in unit sales in the coming years,” says Dr. Uwe Brunkhorst, Senior Vice President Business Unit Cooking, “and this means that our current production sites in Arnsberg, Bünde and Oelde are approaching the limits of their capacities”.
There are several good reasons behind our decision to produce in the USA in future. “Even today, the United States represent Miele’s biggest market outside Germany, with considerable growth rates recently but still plenty of potential”, says Dr. Axel Kniehl, Executive Director Marketing & Sales with the Miele Group. Manufacturing locally is therefore a logical step and sends out a strong signal to our customers there. This also dispenses with the need to ship appliances across the Atlantic: “This reduces delivery times from currently up to 10 weeks to only a few days, whilst at the same time protecting the environment”, says Dr. Stefan Breit, Executive Director Technology. In order to further reduce CO2 emissions, the majority of supplier parts will also come from the USA.
In a first step, at this new plant, Miele will manufacture 30-inch ovens and large, versatile range cookers, both designed specifically for North America. Large-format cooker hoods will be added later. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2024; in a first step, the workforce will grow to 150 employees by the end of 2025. A decision on the precise location will be made and communicated over the coming months. What a second stage expansion might look like, with a view to further product groups and the personnel required for this, will be reviewed at a later date.
Today, production within the business unit Cooking is distributed as follows: Hobs and steam ovens as well as warmer drawers come from the Bünde plant (approx. 730 employees), cooker hoods are manufactured in Arnsberg (approx. 250 employees) and conventional ovens and dialogue ovens come from Oelde (approx. 670 employees), all situated in Germany. The particularly versatile steam ovens are produced in Bünde or Oelde, depending on the model. The Production of the large-format series to the new plant will not in any way weaken Arnsberg, Bünde or Oelde. On the contrary: “We will become more efficient through less complexity and at the same time free up the urgently needed capacities for future growth with the remaining model series”, says Uwe Brunkhorst.
Including the new plant, the Miele Group’s international production network will then comprise a total of 16 plants, eight of them in Germany and one each in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and the USA. In addition to this, there are also two plants belonging to the Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco Group.
Miele UK electric ID Buzz
Miele UK are delighted to announce that we’re one of the first companies in the UK using the new, all electric ID Buzz of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles UK in our service fleet!
Having the ID Buzz as part of our award winning service fleet, not only reliably brings our service technicians to our customers, but also supports us in converting our vehicle fleet to renewable energies. This is an important step towards our global goal of reducing the CO2 emissions of our fleet by at least 30%, by 2030.
The first Miele ID Buzz was handed over today at our head office in Abingdon, by Dave Smerling from Volkswagen Group Fleet International, to Miele Service Tech
Miele increase sales
In a challenging environment with overall declining markets, the Miele Group has grown once again and reports € 5.43 bn sales in 2022.
As in previous years, we produced, sold and shipped more products than ever before. An above-par contribution to this accomplishment came primarily from eastern European and Asian markets, including China, but long-standing markets such as Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the USA gave a good hand, too. The contribution to turnover coming from outside Germany was 72%.
Miele green aluminium
Miele introduces green aluminium to production: After having started to deploy green steel, we are now the first company in our industry to use primary aluminium, produced exclusively using green electricity from hydropower.
As part of a pilot project, we will use profile strips in the manufacture of ovens, which as of this year will be made from around 150 tons of CO2-reduced aluminum and are 100 percent recyclable. This way, we reduce our CO2 footprint by 645 tonnes a year. In doing so, we make yet another contribution to greater sustainability in the supply chain.
“The objective is to use climate-friendly aluminium on a broad front and thereby contribute towards a future-proof economy”, says Senior Vice President Hans Krug who is in charge of Purchasing at the Miele Group. In the picture, Hans Krug (left) and Oelde plant manager Rouven Vierfuss show a profile strip made of aluminum.
Miele presents Pioneering GmbH
Miele has founded its own incubator in order to further promote the development of innovative solutions from within the ranks of the workforce and implement them faster. With Pioneering GmbH, Miele is ensuring a creative environment in which internal start-ups can bring their ideas to fruition faster, well away from established structures. Management of Pioneering GmbH is to be shared by Ina Nordsiek, Director Intrapreneurship within the business unit, and Hendrik Stegelmann, Director Digital Innovation and Products with Smart Home. Both will assume their new responsibilities alongside their existing tasks.
Particular attention will be paid to promoting business ideas which represent a strategic fit but are outside Miele’s previous core business field. «With Pioneering GmbH – Nordsiek explains – we are offering administrative freedom and elbow room and a professional and inspiring environment in which we bring together the best of the start-up and the Miele world». As Stegelmann added, «on the one hand, teams have the liberties and autonomy of a start-up whilst on the other being able to fall back on the support of a globally active family company».
In more concrete terms, ideas for innovative business models, product or process solutions from the New Growth Factory or Smart Home are transferred to the new company which, after careful evaluation by Miele, are considered promising. Once there, development of the so-called Minimum Viable Product continues through to market maturity, initial discussions with potential customers and market trials under real-life conditions. If the business case overcomes this hurdle, it is either integrated at Miele or pursued further as a separate start-up founded at that point
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