By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: Miele Australia has added staff to its marketing department in order to achieve the company’s ambitions to grow the business to a turnover of at least $450 million by 2010.

“These professional appointments have been necessary to effectively and efficiently fulfill the demands of our growing business and are integral to our new marketing structure which we announced a few months ago,” said Miele Australia general manager marketing, Cliff Thompson.

Linda Brushfield has been appointed as national home economist manager. Brushfield brings with her a decade of experience as the test kitchen manager for Kraft Foods Australia where she assisted in the developing the Kraft image and brand globally.

Rodney Manauzzi is currently Miele’s training manager for the Northern Region and New Zealand has been appointed product manager – laundry and dishwashing commencing 1 January 2008.

Manauzzi’s appointment allows Thorsten Kissel to dedicate his time to his new role of product marketing manager – miele galleries. Previously product manager – laundry and floorcare, Thorsten is now responsible for delivering a consistent and relevant look and feel to the Miele Galleries across Australia.

Thorsten will oversee the various Miele State Galleries while providing product training to Miele’s regional product training managers and the national and state home economists.

To complete the product management team, Miele Floorcare is still seeking a specialist product and business development manager.

In addition, after more than 10 years as executive assistant at Miele Australia and the completion of studies in marketing, Barbara Muhlethaler has taken up the new position of marketing services manager.

Muhlethaler’s new role is to ensure the smooth running of communications activities relevant to meeting Miele’s overall marketing objectives, especially those related to direct marketing, while also providing assistance to the General Manager Marketing, Cliff Thompson.