Miele

Miele
	Miele logo
Company type	private
Founded	1899
Founders	Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann
Headquarters	Gütersloh, Germany
Products	domestic appliances, commercial equipment and fitted kitchens
Revenue	2540 million Euro (2006)
Number of employees	15.000 (2006)
Website	www.miele.de

Miele (pronounced 'Mee-la') is a manufacturer of domestic appliances, commercial equipment and fitted kitchens, based in Gütersloh, Germany. Miele has always been a family-owned and run company, founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann.

History

Miele's first products were a cream separator, butter churn, and tub washing machine, under the Meteor brand. Carl Miele supervised manufacturing personally, and Reinhard Zinkann apprenticed and handled finances and sales.

The Miele trademark was used very early on and appeared consistently on all machines, nameplates, printed materials and advertising produced by the company. From the mid-1920s, great importance was attached to the trademark of a sloping dash as the dot on the "i".

The trademark has remained unchanged apart from three minor "face-lifts" to reflect contemporary tastes. A survey by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany's leading daily newspapers, found that the "i" alone was sufficient to identify the Miele brand.

Miele exports products to many global markets and is represented in 37 countries. Miele's expansion into the United States came in 1983, when they established corporate headquarters in Somerset, New Jersey. They later relocated to Princeton in March of 1999. Currently products are manufactured in Germany and Czechoslovakia and shipped to the United States, where there are showrooms in ten states.

Products

Miele currently produces domestic appliances including laundry systems; vacuum cleaners; dishwashers; rotary irons; built-in convection, steam, and speed ovens; cooktops; ventilation hoods; and coffee systems. The company also produces commercial wet cleaning machines, lab glassware washers, dental disinfectors, and medical equipment washers.

Miele was presented with an award in Munich on February 7, for being the most successful company in Germany in 2007. In the category 'Best Company', Miele beat last year's winner Google, which came second, and also Porsche, which came third.

Rankings for this 'best brands' prize (now in its fourth year) are the result of representative market research covering such key criteria as current economic market success and brand recognition and popularity among consumers. Miele was successful as 'Best Company' and also achieved a top-five place in the category 'Best Product Brand'.

The 'Best Company' is determined based on the 'GfK Corporate Reputation' measuring method. GfK is the leading market research institute in Germany.

Miele positions itself at the upper end of the market for domestic appliances, where competitors include Bosch and Siemens.

Slogans

Miele's motto is Immer Besser, German for "Forever Better". The company also uses the slogan Anything else is a compromise.

External links

51°54′50″N 8°24′07″E / 51.91389°N 8.40194°E / 51.91389; 8.40194

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