• Incomparably fresh, aromatic and nutrient-rich salads, herbs and microgreens

• Smart fully automated greenhouse unit for a healthy lifestyle

Fancy fresh salads and herbs harvested at home, in an urban home without even a balcony or garden, and at any time of year? The unique Plantcubes from Miele’s new subsidiary Agrilution provide an innovative and sustainable approach to achieving this. The compact, fully automated greenhouse units from the Munich-based start-up bring healthy variety to your plate while also presenting a stylish eyecatcher for your home. With Agrilution, Miele is expanding its portfolio of creative and healthy enjoyment options.

More and more people are being drawn to urban centres, where gardens are in short supply and agricultural land is becoming ever rarer. This is where the idea of vertical farming comes into play – a pioneering concept in which food is produced in an environmentally friendly and space-saving manner in multi-level fully automated greenhouse units, and all as close to the place of consumption as possible. Agrilution is bringing this idea into your own home in the form of a mini vertical farm. A fully automated Plantcube is no larger than a standard fridge – and provides the perfect growing conditions for salads, herbs and microgreens.

As all the factors that influence growth are controlled by the cloud, it is always springtime in this smart unit. The automatic watering system supplies the plants with water and nutrients via an integrated tank, and specially developed LEDs featuring all the relevant wavelengths of natural sunlight provide optimum lighting and growth conditions. As a result, the plants produced have up to 30% more nutrients and are rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

An app updates you on plant growth and lets you know when they are at their best for you to enjoy. As the plants can be cultivated all year round, every season is harvest season. This is the very essence of sustainability: absolute freshness and healthy enjoyment without any transportation, cold chains or packaging waste.

This concept is drawing more and more fans to Agrilution. “In the past year alone, we have seen a major positive development in sales,” reports Agrilution CEO Max Lössl, who founded the company together with partner Philipp Wagner. This trend is also continuing into 2020 – influenced by the effects of COVID-19 as people are faced with spending more time at home and made to think about how to source healthy food. Lössl explains that during lockdown there has been a noticeable increase in sales online, which has later also continued in-store. He is also finding that environmental awareness is growing among consumers, and this is another area where Agrilution is reaping rewards: while a kilogram of field-grown salad  consumes 240 litres of water by the time it is harvested and travels 1000 kilometres on average before it reaches supermarket shelves, the Plantcube only requires half this amount of water when operated at full capacity for a year. This equates to water savings of 98%.

At present, eight seedmats spread across two levels can be cultivated at once in the Plantcube. 25 plant varieties including Thai basil, wasabina mustard and wild rocket are currently available. To satisfy customer demand, the portfolio is constantly being expanded to include new mixes, such as BBQ salad, Buddha bowl or stir fry, where different greens are grown on the same mat. “As well as striving to improve the quality of the food we eat and therefore making a contribution to healthy and tasty nutrition,” emphasises Max Lössl, “our next key concern is to achieve sustainability at every stage – this is also a top priority for us.”

The Plantcubes are available from the Agrilution online shop and selected kitchen studios and retailers (for ordering options and the list of retailers, please visit www.agrilution.com).

Media contact at Miele:

Carsten Prudent
Phone: +49 5241 89-1951
Email: carsten.prudent@miele.com

Media contact at Agrilution:
Corinna Fromm
Phone: +49 89 55 05 20 50
Email: agrilution@corinnafromm.de

About Agrilution: The son of an aid worker, Maximilian Lössl grew up in China and experienced early on in life the contrast between technical comfort and deepest poverty and malnutrition. So when he heard of vertical farming, the idea captured his imagination immediately and inspired the vision of ultimately bringing this revolutionary concept into every home. His aim is to create a perfect ecosystem which in future will enable everyone to grow their own nutrient-rich plants. Agrilution was established in Munich in 2013 and Plantcubes have been available on the market since March 2019. Along with co-founder Philipp Wagner, Lössl leads a dedicated team of scientists and engineers who are working to further develop sustainable indoor fully automated greenhouse units. Agrilution Systems GmbH has been part of the Miele Group since December 2019.

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. This line-up is augmented by dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilisers for use in medical and laboratory applications (Miele Professional). The Miele company, founded in 1899, has eight production plants in Germany as well as one plant each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Romania and Poland. These are joined by the two plants belonging to Miele's Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco. Turnover in the 2018/19 business year was around € 4.16 bn, with a share of business outside Germany of approx. 71%. 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 20,500, whereof 11,050 are employed in Germany. The company has its headquarters in Gütersloh in Westphalia.