Miele strengthens medical technology division with joint venture
The new company is one of the largest players on the global market
There is a new player on the market for cleaning, disinfection and sterilization solutions for hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry: SteelcoBelimed. The joint venture, which has emerged from the Miele group company Steelco and the Metall Zug companies Belimed Infection Control and Belimed Life Science, is now starting operations under the brand SteelcoBelimed.
This follows the approval of the joint venture by the responsible authorities. Miele holds 67 % and Metall Zug 33 % of SteelcoBelimed via a holding company based in Zug, Switzerland. The declared aim of the Gütersloh-based family company is to significantly expand the business for commercial products and applications. “The Professional business of Miele is increasing its turnover share both organically and inorganically, from less than 15% a few years ago to more than 20% including the joint venture. It has become an indispensable pillar for our group in addition to our business with household appliances, given the growth opportunities, the innovation and technology focus and its different economic cycles”, explains Dr Axel Kniehl, Executive Director of Marketing & Sales at Miele and responsible board member of the Professional Business Unit.
The market for medical technology products is constantly growing, as well as the number of medical interventions. As a result, more instruments need to be reprocessed. The same applies to the pharmaceutical industry with a strong demand for new products and customer orientated solutions for a secured production environment.
SteelcoBelimed manufactures at four production sites: two in Italy, one in Switzerland and one in Slovenia. The joint venture combines the people, the strength, expertise and resources of both companies to create an innovative enterprise in the hospital/Infection Control sector and in the pharmaceutical/Life Science industry. The new company will benefit from a broad portfolio of appliances, digital solutions and fast innovation cycles.
"We aim to be the most customer-centric, innovative and reliable solution partner in our industry”, says Dr Christian Kluge, responsible for the Professional Business Unit at Miele and CEO of SteelcoBelimed AG. “We are now joining forces and taking digitalisation, product performance and sustainability to a new level. Moreover, our joint venture leads to a significantly stronger market presence in Europe, America and Asia." Integration activities and growth investments are fully backed by the shareholders Miele and Metall Zug, with combined funding commitments to a three-digit million Euro amount.
SteelcoBelimed will be led by executives from Miele, Steelco and Belimed. Alongside Dr Christian Kluge, who assumes the CEO role, the following C-level positions are defined: Alessandro Caprara (Infection Control), Richard Haemmerli (Finance), Ralf Kretzschmar (Life Science) and Michael Krimpmann (Integration).
The board of directors is chaired by Dr Christian Kluge (Senior Vice President of the Miele Professional Business Unit) and completed by Dr Axel Kniehl and Dr Stefan Breit (both Miele executive board members), as well as Martin Wipfli and Dr Matthias Rey (Chairman of the board and CEO of Metall Zug, respectively).
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