From a US market point of view though, plenty of European players don't step outside of Europe. I mean the EU is an $18.8 trillion economy that's roughly 18% of the world's economy and from the likes of Miele's point of view it's their domestic market. Most of Europe's economy is domestic and is trade with itself - much as most of the US economy is like that. They're both enormous, highly developed mixed consumer economies.
You can go a long time in the US without seeing a Renault or a Citroen car, yet those are huge brands in the EU and elsewhere and are highly successful companies. You can go a long time in Europe without ever seeing a GM car. In fact, GM sold off their European brand Opel (Vauxhall badged in the UK).
The same applies to plenty of US and Asian companies and if you throw in the current turbulence with Trump's chaotic approach to trade and tarrifs, it's even less attractive to invest there when you could focus domestically in Europe and into Asian markets where the EU has a growing number of comprehensive trade deals and you've a booming consumer economy with big spenders at the upper end who are well within Miele's niche.
Miele isn't a publicly quoted company. It's part of the privately owned, family owned business that is basically part of the traditional German 'Mittelstand' (the small and medium businesses that tend to be family owned or owned by groups of private investors, often including employees) and is EXTREMELY unlikely to ever be sold off or to be subject to any kind of merger or acquisition. It can play very long games and doesn't have to impress with quarterly results.
Over stretching into a market it can't properly serve would be a big problem and I think that's kind of what they did with the US specific models. It's a physically huge market and they've a small share. So, getting things like service agent networks rolled out in every state isn't easy as they're going to be rather expensive to keep on board with such a niche brand in laundry etc.
The reality is they can serve most Asia with basically the exact same machines as they sell domestically in Europe. The only localisation language but the US market has both electrical differences a expectations of larger machines etc. So there's a lot more localisation involved.
I could see Miele still just keeping a toe in the North American market and focusing on where they're strongest. You build on your strengths, not chase after areas where you're structurally weak - like trying to take a chunk of a highly price competitive market where you're a very niche upper end player.
The biggest challenge Miele is probably facing right now is from Samsung and LG in Europe. They've pushed into that €1000+ washer and dryers space which is the area Miele absolutely owned for decades. That's where their big challenge is in laundry anyway.
My view of their brand is they should be pushing the ecological aspect of their extremely long lived appliances. I see little or no focus on the fact that their machines tend to outlast anything else and are usually highly repairable.
If Miele went after the high spending power, ecologically focused consumers more directly, I think they may actually do a lot better than just trying to chase middle or the road or snob brand values. They've an unusually good product and they really could leverage it more.
You can go a long time in the US without seeing a Renault or a Citroen car, yet those are huge brands in the EU and elsewhere and are highly successful companies. You can go a long time in Europe without ever seeing a GM car. In fact, GM sold off their European brand Opel (Vauxhall badged in the UK).
The same applies to plenty of US and Asian companies and if you throw in the current turbulence with Trump's chaotic approach to trade and tarrifs, it's even less attractive to invest there when you could focus domestically in Europe and into Asian markets where the EU has a growing number of comprehensive trade deals and you've a booming consumer economy with big spenders at the upper end who are well within Miele's niche.
Miele isn't a publicly quoted company. It's part of the privately owned, family owned business that is basically part of the traditional German 'Mittelstand' (the small and medium businesses that tend to be family owned or owned by groups of private investors, often including employees) and is EXTREMELY unlikely to ever be sold off or to be subject to any kind of merger or acquisition. It can play very long games and doesn't have to impress with quarterly results.
Over stretching into a market it can't properly serve would be a big problem and I think that's kind of what they did with the US specific models. It's a physically huge market and they've a small share. So, getting things like service agent networks rolled out in every state isn't easy as they're going to be rather expensive to keep on board with such a niche brand in laundry etc.
The reality is they can serve most Asia with basically the exact same machines as they sell domestically in Europe. The only localisation language but the US market has both electrical differences a expectations of larger machines etc. So there's a lot more localisation involved.
I could see Miele still just keeping a toe in the North American market and focusing on where they're strongest. You build on your strengths, not chase after areas where you're structurally weak - like trying to take a chunk of a highly price competitive market where you're a very niche upper end player.
The biggest challenge Miele is probably facing right now is from Samsung and LG in Europe. They've pushed into that €1000+ washer and dryers space which is the area Miele absolutely owned for decades. That's where their big challenge is in laundry anyway.
My view of their brand is they should be pushing the ecological aspect of their extremely long lived appliances. I see little or no focus on the fact that their machines tend to outlast anything else and are usually highly repairable.
If Miele went after the high spending power, ecologically focused consumers more directly, I think they may actually do a lot better than just trying to chase middle or the road or snob brand values. They've an unusually good product and they really could leverage it more.
