No, That is Not True
Miele North America either through it's parent company Miele KGaA, Düsseldorf, Germany; or some other arrangement obtains product directly from Henkel.
This is obvious for several reasons:
First, until Miele recently started selling new boxes of Persil with directions printed in Spanish and English, all directions were in German on the box, with key areas such as product contents and dosages translated on labels that were pasted over the German writing. Why and how would a second party unshrink wrap/uncase/unpackaged tons of product, slap labels on said boxes and bottles, then repackage? Have seen Persil sold in both stores and when purchased my case, and while the outer shipping boxes are "Miele", the contents are shrink wrapped sets of a certain number in original as left the factory.
Next, by international treaty and laws one cannot import/export consumer products from one country to another (in this case from the EU to the United States), without the maker's expressed consent. Many tried, and all were sued in the courts by such companies as Lever Brothers, Proctor and Gamble and others. One big reason has to do with product liability and testing. Another has to do with product support. Reselling items is another story. If one purchases a P&G detergent from say the UK via "BritishExpat.com" or whatever, that is fine as far as it goes,but if you experience any problems or injury, don't expect P&G in the United States to render you any assistance. You will have to contact P&G in the UK, and they may or may not help, since they did not directly send or offer the product for sale in the United States.
Yes, while it is true in the US and EU, and probably elsewhere as well, that like most other consumer products, items are sold in bulk to regional sales reps or distributors; however Miele is purchasing not only a large volume of Henkel products, (laundry detergents, rinse aids, dishwasher salts, etc..), they also require special labelling and exporting. While some of Henkel's EU distributors might be exporters, why would Miele go that route (which increases costs as it adds more middlemen), when Miele in Germany is perfectly able and set up to export their products on their own?
While Persil boxes do say "exported by Henkel...." one assumes this means for out of EU sales going to shops and dealers not associated with Miele.
If the above were not true, one would find other dealers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico that sell Henkel products such as Persil, when to my knowledge the only major source is Miele and it's affiliated dealers. There are one or two small places,such as Germandeli.com, but not sure how they come upon their products. Miele North America has exclusive contractual sales of Henkel products such as Persil and the rest. That sort of deal does not come through exporters or other middlemen.
L.