Miele: Construction of a new US plant in Alabama - production of cookers and ovens for North America to start at the end of 2024

In March, Miele announced plans to build an additional production facility in the USA. The exact location has now been finalised: the German family-owned company's first plant on the American continent will be built in Opelika in the US state of Alabama. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2024. Initially, 150 employees will be on board.

The USA, where the company has been represented by a sales and service company for 40 years, is Miele's largest market outside Germany. The new site will enable Miele to produce the large-volume ovens and ranges that it has added to its programme specifically for the USA, Canada and Mexico. Later, the matching extractor bonnets will also be produced here. "This will enable us to reduce delivery times from up to ten weeks today to just a few days in a customer-friendly manner and at the same time reduce the impact on the climate," says Dr Stefan Breit, Managing Director Technology of the Miele Group.

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Opelika is a fast-growing and prosperous city in south-east Alabama with a current population of around 32,000. Including the neighbouring city of Auburn, which is home to one of the state's leading technical universities, more than 100,000 people live in the region. "This means there is a good supply of skilled workers, including highly qualified engineers," says Dr Uwe Brunkhorst, Head of the Cooking Business Unit, which is one of the Miele Group's most important growth drivers in the USA and worldwide.

Thanks to the neighbouring industrial companies, particularly from the automotive industry, Miele also finds good conditions here for the development of a local supplier network. In the interest of further CO2 savings, the majority of parts that Miele does not manufacture itself will also come from the USA. With its proximity to Interstate 85 and a journey time of just 75 minutes to Atlanta Airport, the transport links are also ideal.

Today, the Cooking Business Unit's production is distributed as follows: Hobs, steam ovens and warming drawers come from the Bünde plant (approx. 730 employees), extractor bonnets from Arnsberg (approx. 250 employees) and cookers, ovens and dialogue ovens from Oelde (approx. 670 employees). The steam cookers, i.e. ovens and steam cookers in one appliance, are produced in Bünde or Oelde, depending on the model.

"With the new site, all three plants will gain capacity for future increases in the number of units of the other model series," says Cooking boss Brunkhorst. With the new plant, the Miele Group's international production network now comprises 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. The two plants of the Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco Group will also be added.

More information: www.miele.de

Miele & Cie. KG, Gütersloh, Germany

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