Miele Australia has issued a media statement after Appliance Retailer’s article titled Miele outsourcing sales team to agency, moving to key account management system:
Miele Australia has announced an organisational change program that will strengthen its key account management structure and provide better support to retailers to implement category and consumer initiatives at point of sale.
Contrary to rumours circulating in the trade, Miele has confirmed that the recent organisational change program that has resulted in 33 employee redundancies is not part of a cost saving initiative; rather it is an enabler to adapt to the new order in the marketplace. This restructure will enable Miele to deliver more support on the shop floor during high consumer traffic periods, for instance weekend trading.
As Managing Director, Michael Jeanes said: “In order for Miele to maintain our position as the Brand of Choice and a leading supplier of domestic appliances, we must win the battle for sales that is being fought out on the retail floor.”
Jeanes believes the winning brands will be those able to deliver a seamless execution of strategy at point of sale.
“From a retail perspective, this is the consequence of wide scale point-of-sale closures, mergers and acquisitions as never before seen in Australia.
“The restructure has been implemented ahead of what is described by Miele as the most significant and innovative Miele laundry range launch in Quarter 1 2015 which will revolutionise the market. In addition, Miele’s increased frontline sales teams will engage with consumers at point-of-sale to best support their purchase decision,” Michael Jeanes said.
Miele’s two-tiered customer service model will be headed up by current Sales Director, David Woollcott supported by a key account Management structure led by Owen Holbourn, and a national field force led by Cameron Stow.
Miele believe this new structure will be much more flexible and responsive to the needs of their key retail partners and provide a new level of support on the shopfloor with an anticipated 50% increase in the frontline field resource during key promotional periods.
Project Sales and Miele Centers’ operations remain unchanged.
This statement has been edited to confirm to Appliance Retailer’s style.