• The focus of the company is on the production of high-quality filter products and materials made from random-spun fibres

• Miele increases its vertical integration and moves into new business fields

Germany's domestic appliance manufacturer Miele took out a 100% stake in the family-owned Eurofilters company at the end of December. The company, headquartered in the Belgian town of Pelt, stands for highly effective solutions based on random-spun fibres, such as materials for face masks and dust bags. The two companies have a long-standing and successful business relationship as Eurofilters already produces a large proportion of the dust bags available from Miele. More recently, the non-wovens specialist also extended its portfolio of technical products for medical applications.

Eurofilters was founded in 1977 by the Schultink family and employs a workforce of just under 160. Management is currently shared between Jan Schultink as CEO and Frits Schultink as CFO. Alongside dust bags, the company also produces materials used in manufacturing face masks and in blood filtration at their site in Pelt, which covers an area of around 35,000 m². Miele, for its part, is held in high esteem as the world's leading manufacturer of premium appliances for cooking, laundry care and floorcare. These products are joined by commercial machines for businesses, the medical sector and laboratories as well as for air purification.

'With its outstanding portfolio of products and patents, Eurofilters represents an excellent match for Miele for a variety of reasons', explains Gernot Trettenbrein, Senior Vice President of the Miele Group and head of Miele's New Growth Factory business unit. On the one hand, this opens up new business fields for Miele and, on the other hand, Miele increases its own command of the value creation chain in its strategically important business with vacuum cleaner accessories. 'This allows us to manage the further development of the portfolio ourselves here as well, for example with regard to quality and sustainability aspects,’ Trettenbrein continues. 'At the same time, we look forward to continue and further expand Eurofilters' well-established supplier relationships.'

Company handover to responsible successors

'As part of the Miele Group, our enterprise is in an excellent position to face the future', says Managing Director Jan Schultink, who, together with his brother, will withdraw from the company in the medium term for age-related reasons. 'We are pleased to have found a responsible and far-sighted successor in the German family-owned company and quality leader Miele, a company steeped in tradition which has been one of our key accounts for a long time now', Frits Schultink adds. With the support of Miele this also presents the opportunity to consolidate and grow Eurofilter's position in Europe and beyond.

Company profile: Miele is the world's leading manufacturer of premium domestic appliances including cooking, baking and steam-cooking appliances, refrigeration products, coffee makers, dishwashers and laundry and floor care products. Their product portfolio also includes dishwashers, air purifiers, washing machines and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilisers for use in medical and laboratory applications (Miele Professional). Founded in 1899, the company has eight production plants in Germany, one each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Romania and Poland as well as two production plants belonging to its Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco. Sales in the 2020 business year amounted to around € 4.5 bn (thereof 29.5% in Germany). Miele is represented with its own sales subsidiaries and via importers in almost 100 countries/regions. Throughout the world, the family-run enterprise, now in its fourth generation, employs a workforce of around 20,900, of which approx. 11,050 employees work in Germany. The company has its headquarters in Gütersloh in Westphalia.