Miele Australia has reported record sales in their latest financial filings, with their profits boosted by a $16.9M property sale, the business has not disclosed, how much of their growth has come from their own retail network that sells direct to consumers in locations close to their retail partners.
In their latest filing the German appliance Company reported profits of $23,116,211, this was up from the $9,492,876 million they reported in 2021 due in part to the sale of the property which netted the business a gain of $10.9M
Overall sales came in at to $442,638,495 this was up over $44M from the $398,722,396 achieved in 2021.
Domestic service revenue was $20.24M
Globally the business reported revenues of over $7 billion dollars.
During the year freight costs increased by of over $3M, their advertising spends which drives consumers to Miele stores was also up from $21M to $23M.
The local business that claims that they are “Not publicly accountable” sent a legal letter to ChannelNews last year when we highlighted their sustainability claims made at IFA 2022.
At the time the ACCC was initiating their “green washing” program and Miele took exception to being association with the story, as if they were not a Company the ACCC should question in the future about their sustainability claims despite their IFA press conference being primarily about their contribution to the environment and sustainability claims.
In their latest financial report, the German owned business claims that ‘Returns are permitted at the discretion of management” despite Australia having clear laws relating to warranties.
In Australia Miele retail partners don’t carry Miele products, except for display stock.
Instead, retailers place an order with Miele and the order is then taken over by Miele management resulting in Miele getting immediate access to a retailer’s customer, which retailers have told ChannelNews is a system that “We don’t like but have to live with if we want to sell a Miele appliance”.
Miele sells via a Chartered Agency system which is legal, and while they like to position themselves as premium some retailers see the brand as sitting in the middle appliance market when compared to appliances such as those from Sub Zero and the likes of Zug.
A Sub-Zero refrigerator sells for $28K in Australia while a Zug oven costs $6K and their hot plates $6,500.
The system that Miele adopts for retailers means that no retailers have the power to discount Miele products.
All retailers offer Miele products for the same price because they are not actually retailing the products, they are simply acting as agents for Miele and this some say is another form of “price fixing” that eliminates discounting in Australia.
Their ‘pro forma’ selling, has seen other brands adopt the system including ASKO, AEG, and Gaggenau and NEF.
Miele claims that the system is legal under Australian law because the retailer never actually owns the product.
Then there is the issue of who is selling a Miele product the retailer or Miele.
For example, if a Miele installer has problems with an install who does the consumer blame, their belief is that they are most probally dealing with a retailer not Miele direct.
Brands such as Samsung Panasonic and LG whose pricing is often discounted by retailers, sell in the open market with retailers carrying stock of their products.
