Reinhard Zinkann; Executive Director Miele

After Sjaak Brouwer announces retirement.

As part of an exclusive interview with Appliance Retailer in Berlin about product highlights at IFA, Miele executive director and co-proprietor, Dr Reinhard Zinkann (pictured) also spoke at length about the impending retirement of Sjaak Brouwer, the current managing director of Miele Australia and New Zealand. He will be succeeded by Yves Dalcourt, who is currently running Miele Canada.

Dr Zinkann said: “We would have loved to have Sjaak Brouwer stay on another couple of years, but he decided to retire and to return home to Europe. We accept that and wish him well because he did a good job.”

Australia and New Zealand is the third largest market for Miele, which places it behind Germany and the United States.

Dr Zinkann continued: “We have a very close relationship with our trade partners in Australia and New Zealand and we also have the Miele Chartered Agency (MCA) system in place.

“As we also run the MCA system in Canada, Yves Dalcourt knows that system and he has successfully run Miele Canada. He has taken the challenge to move to Australia and we are happy to announce that. We are also proud and happy that with Yves, we now have in this very important market of Australia and New Zealand, an internal successor.

“In the Miele Australia and New Zealand business, our managing director, Peter Murphy, started the MCA system; he was succeeded by Michael Jeanes, who after retiring, was succeeded by Sjaak Brouwer.”

In summary, Dr Zinkann said: “I’m extremely happy that Yves is willing to take on the challenge; it’s quite a challenge to move a couple of thousand miles away from your home turf and to take over such a huge business, which is actually a continent. I think it’s a good token if you can do this internally.”