Who Owns Miele And Where Are The Appliances Made?

The Miele brand tends to be a luxury appliance brand you might not know exists. Miele started out back in 1899 when businessman Reinhard Zinkann and engineer Carl Miele started a German company that would initially make cream separators for dairies. Miele & Cie. started out with 11 employees and soon afterwards, it started making washing machines. By 1910, the company's washers had their own electric motors, followed in 1912 by a short-lived foray into automobile production. Miele later began producing bicycles in 1924, commercial laundry machines in 1925, and in 1931 came out with the first torpedo-shaped vacuum cleaner with a heat-resistant Bakelite case. The two founders of the company died in 1938 and 1939, with their sons taking over during Nazi occupation, when armaments were produced in Miele factories with forced labor. 

The Miele company returned to civilian production after the war, with a lineup of bicycles, washing machines, motorized bicycles, and tumble dryers. The 1960s and 1970s saw the addition of dishwashers for consumer and institutional use, ovens, kitchen cabinet production, and the microwave oven. Today, Miele makes a complete line of upscale kitchen appliances, makes vacuum cleaners in their Chinese plant, and is still a force in industrial equipment like sterilizers and washer-disinfectors for hospitals, dental practices, and medical labs. 

Miele appliances are made in a wide variety of locations around the world. There are eight factories located in Germany, two in Italy, and one each in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, China, and the U.S., in Opelika, Alabama.

In addition to its worldwide network of factory locations, Miele has what it calls "Experience Centers" and showrooms in many upscale locales around the world. These are places where customers can get familiar with the Miele line and determine which Miele appliances will best suit their needs. There are 86 Miele Experience Centers in Europe and the U.K., some of which are in Turkey, Ukraine, and Serbia. Another 15 are in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Chile, while 18 more are located in Asia. There are 10 in Australia and New Zealand, with three more in South Africa. So, there are plenty to choose from, wherever you happen to be.

The founders of Miele had a single guiding principle that was stamped into the first products ever made by the company. It would later become the overarching foundation of their philosophy of doing business. It was stated as "immer besser," which translates from the original German as "forever better." As early as 1916, Miele offered a 10-year warranty on its products. Today, Miele appliances continue this tradition — Miele came in second place among every major dishwasher brands ranked worst to best. In addition, Miele came out on top with the highest average lifespan of a washing machine.

There are many brand names that attract both high net-worth consumers and ordinary shoppers looking for a higher-than-standard level of quality in their appliances. One of the best-known of these brands is Miele. Over the years, this German company has become a worldwide producer of many different types of high-quality appliances.