The world’s leading premium home appliance maker, Miele, achieved sales of EUR 4.1 billion in the financial year 2017/18, an increase of 167 million euros, or 4.3 percent. Steelco Group, Italian subsidiary of Miele, has been involved in the overall growth of 91 million euros, which operates in the field of medical technology, whose financial indicators are covered for the first time in the report. In Germany, Miele increased sales by 2.4 percent and further improved its market leadership position. At global level, dynamic growth in Asia was recorded, and during this reporting period, the company’s investments amounted to 272 million euros.
For the third year in a row, Miele has achieved significantly higher growth than its annual average, and the financial year 2017/18 had a promising start. In spite of the subsequent stagnation of the market, due to an unfavourable foreign exchange rate, Miele’s Executive Board is seeing a growth of over four percent as a very convincing and positive signal. With the premiere of the revolutionary new cooking appliance, Dialog Oven, at the IFA 2017 exhibition, Miele once again confirmed that he is the leader in innovation in his industrial industry. Miele made sales of 1.21 billion euros in Germany, an increase of 2.4 percent, and reaffirmed the position of the company as the main brand of household appliances, with the largest turnover in the retail of electrical appliances and among kitchen specialists. In the period under review, Miele has once again received the Kundenmonitor Deutschland Award for the best service in its field, which puts the company in the leading position for the past 25 years.
Outside of Germany, Miele significantly increased business in China; however, higher growth is noticeable in markets like Canada, Austria and Russia. In southern Europe, Miele continued to grow in Spain and Greece. The US and Australia – the largest Miele markets after Germany – recorded satisfactory growth in domestic currency turnover.
At the level of individual groups of products, compared to the previous year, there were appliances for cooking, ovens and coffee machines, primarily because of the market success achieved by the new series of models. In the floor care sector, a Robot Vacuum Cleaner with a threefold suction efficiency has been successfully launched – Scout RX2.
Miele significantly increased its share in the Korean company Yujin Robot, which produces vacuum cleaners. Another milestone is marked by the initial investment of Miele Venture Capital GmbH, founded in 2017, which allows the company to take on the role in promising start-ups, offering new digital services, greater creativity and ease of networking. In addition, in order to strengthen the basis for further growth of the market, it was decided to build a washing machine production plant in Poland. Production at the new plant should start at the beginning of 2020, with an initial capacity of 250,000 units a year and with about 400 employees.
The Miele Professional business unit generated a turnover of 593 million euros, an increase of 21.4 percent annually (excluding Steelco Group with a growth of 2.9 percent). The first joint appearance after the involvement of the Italian company Steelco in the Miele Group, Medica Medical Center in Düsseldorf, held in November 2017, is marked by the division of responsibilities – activities related to business expansion and equipping of central sterile departments for hospital supplies will be carried out under the label Steelco, while Miele will be focused on clinics and laboratories. When it comes to larger washing machines and commercial dishwashers, the latest series of Benchmark and ProfiLine models provide transient traffic growth.
By June 30, 2018, Miele employed 20,098 workers, including 560 Steelco employees. At the end of the reporting period, Miele hired 11,255 workers in Germany, an increase of 337 FTE or 3.1 percent. In addition, Miele this year for the first time participated in the project “Great Place to Work” where it took the first place in the category of employers with more than five thousand employees. Miele’s personnel policy, based on equal opportunities, received the “Total E-Quality” award.
The total investments of the Miele Group during the previous financial year amounted to EUR 272 million, which is EUR 47 million or 20 percent more compared to the year that preceded it, during which a record was recorded in the amount of investments. About two-thirds of these funds have been invested in the development of new products, as well as in the expansion and modernization of the international production network of Miele Group.
Much of the funds were allocated for the construction of a building in the production facility in Gutersloh, where the offices of the new Smart Home, laboratory facilities, and new facilities for the company’s fire service will be located.
Also, several new Miele Experience Centers have been opened around the world, among others in Brisbane, Calgary, Dubai, Istanbul and Astana.