Miele & Cie. KG

Who owns Miele?
The Miele family (51 percent) and Zinkann family (49 percent), the founding families, across roughly 80 shareholders. It has been family owned since 1899.

Is Miele publicly traded?
No. It is a private family company with no stock listing.

What is Miele's revenue?
EUR 5.16 billion for fiscal 2025, up 2.3 percent.

When was Miele founded?
In 1899 in Herzebrock, Germany, by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann. Headquarters moved to Gütersloh in 1907.

What brands does Miele own?
Essentially one: the Miele flagship across domestic appliances, plus the Miele Professional commercial unit.

How many employees does Miele have?
Approximately 23,000 across 19 production sites and 49 sales companies worldwide.

What is Miele Professional?
The commercial division supplying machines, systems and services for hotels, care facilities and medical technology.

Carl Miele, an engineer, and Reinhard Zinkann, a salesman, founded a centrifuge factory in Herzebrock, Westphalia in 1899, producing cream separators and butter churns for dairy farms. The company moved to Gütersloh in 1907 and diversified through the early 20th century into washing machines, bicycles, motorcycles and even automobiles before concentrating on appliances.

Miele's product milestones trace the premium history of the industry: early electric washing machines, Europe's first electric dishwasher in 1929, vacuum cleaners from 1927, and a steady build out of cooking, refrigeration and floor care lines. The company stayed independent through wars and industry consolidation, keeping production in house when competitors outsourced.

The late 20th and early 21st centuries confirmed its premium model: expansion of sales subsidiaries to 49 countries, connected appliances under the Miele@home platform, and commercial equipment growth in hospitality and healthcare.

Recent years have been a stress test. Cost inflation and weak European demand pushed the company into the Miele Performance Program in 2024, a restructuring that reached its EUR 500 million savings target by the end of 2025 and included roughly 2,700 job reductions announced in 2023, executed without compulsory layoffs in Germany. Fiscal 2025 nonetheless delivered growth: revenue rose 2.3 percent to EUR 5.16 billion on kitchen solutions and commercial strength, and the company confirmed a EUR 500 million German site investment program through 2028.

Miele's sustainability record is substantive for the industry: 20 year product life targets, high recycled content, UN Global Compact membership and biennial sustainability reporting, with the 2025 edition prepared early toward ESRS standards covering Scope 1 through 3 emissions.

The company's core environmental claim is durability itself, displacing replacement cycles. It also commits to diversity charter standards and reports energy efficiency gains across its appliance lines.

Miele products consistently top European consumer tests including repeated Stiftung Warentest wins and Which? Best Buy honors, and the company regularly leads German brand trust rankings for domestic appliances.

The principal recent scrutiny was the 2023 to 2025 restructuring and roughly 2,700 job reductions, which drew union attention and German press coverage though executed without compulsory layoffs in Germany. Product level it faces routine recall activity typical of the industry.