Miele builds a plant in the USA
To continue and further strengthen its growth course, the Miele Group continues to expand its production capacities. The next milestone is the Gütersloh family-owned group's first plant on the American continent, where cookers and ovens will be manufactured for the USA, Canada and Mexico. For the world's leading manufacturer of premium appliances for household and commercial use, this is the eighth production site outside Germany, with 16 plants in total.
Thanks to its high-quality cookers, ovens, hobs, steam cookers, cooker bonnets and other attractive products, the Cooking business unit has been one of the Miele Group’s most important growth drivers for many years – most recently with more than CHF 1.1 bn in sales and an increase of almost 13%. “We are also planning for increasing unit sales in the coming years,” says Cooking boss Uwe Brunkhorst, “and this means we are reaching the limits of our capacity with our current production sites in Arnsberg, Bünde and Oelde.”
There are several good reasons for the decision to also produce in the USA in the future. “The United States is already Miele’s largest market outside of Germany, with recent significant growth rates but also a lot of potential,” says Axel Kniehl, Managing Director of Marketing & Sales for the Miele Group. Producing locally is therefore a logical step and sends a strong signal to customers there. In addition, this eliminates the need to transport appliances across the Atlantic: “This reduces delivery times from up to ten weeks today to just a few days, while at the same time reducing the burden on the climate”, says Stefan Breit, Managing Director Technology. In order to further reduce CO2 emissions, the majority of supplier parts will also come from the USA.
In a first step, Miele will manufacture 30-inch ovens and large, versatile range cookers at its new plant, both of which are specially designed for North America. Large-format cooker bonnets will be added later. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2024, with 150 employees by the end of 2025. The decision on the specific location will be made and communicated in the coming months. What a second expansion stage might look like will be examined at a later date with a view to further product groups and the personnel required for this.
Today, the production of the Cooking business unit is distributed as follows: The Bünde plant (approx. 730 employees) produces hobs and steam cookers as well as warming drawers, Arnsberg (approx. 250 employees) the cooker bonnets and Oelde (approx. 670 employees) the cookers, ovens and dialogue cookers. The steam ovens, i.e. ovens and steam cookers in one appliance, are produced in Bünde or Oelde, depending on the model. All locations are in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Production of the large-format series in the new plant will not weaken Arnsberg, Bünde or Oelde, on the contrary: “We will become more efficient through less complexity and at the same time gain the urgently needed capacities for future increases in the number of units of the other model series,” says Uwe Brunkhorst.
Including the new plant, the Miele Group’s international production network will then comprise a total of 16 locations, eight of which are in Germany and one each in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and the USA. Added to this are the two plants of the Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco Group.