Founded in 1899, this brand was started in Herzebrock, Germany with just eleven employees and has the brand promise of Forever Better.

• Miele was founded on July 1, 1899 in a former grain mill in Herzebrock, Germany with just eleven employees. Today, the company employs more than 22,000 people across 49 countries. Miele established its US presence and marked its expansion into the American market in 1983. The company opened its current Princeton, NJ headquarters location in 1999, the year of the company’s 100-year anniversary. The unique US-headquarters building was designed by well-known architect and long-time Princeton resident Michael Graves.

• Miele is a family-owned company and has remained wholly owned by the founding Miele and Zinkann families since its inception. The company is currently being managed and operated by the fourth-generation family members.

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  The company’s first products were a cream separator and a butter churn. Over the decades, Miele evolved from agricultural and utilitarian manufacturing, with automobile, hand cart and motorized bicycle production, into a premium brand specializing in kitchen, laundry, and floor-care appliances.

• The brand promise “Immer Besser” (“Forever Better”), said to have been written by the founders on their earliest machines, remains central to Miele’s commitment to quality, innovation, and sustainability.

• Over its 125-year history, Miele has pioneered several noteworthy innovations: Europe’s first electric dishwasher for domestic use (1929), the patented cutlery drawer featured as the third level of a dishwasher (1987), the patented honeycomb laundry drum for gentle fabric care (2001), and early smart-home functionality with InfoControl (1998), among others.

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