Vileda turns 75
October 1st, 2023, Weinheim, Germany – For generations, Vileda has been a familiar name in millions of households worldwide. On October 1, the brand celebrates its 75th birthday.
It all began in the mid-1940s: Attentive employees of the Freudenberg family company in Weinheim, Germany, noticed how cleaners were using leftovers from nonwovens production as cleaning cloths. The material seemed ideal for wet cleaning. They took up the idea and developed the first commercial window cleaning cloth, Vileda, which felt "like leather" (“wie Leder” in German) and gave the brand its name. On October 1, 1948, the Vileda brand was registered with the Patent Office.
This launched the rise of a brand whose red logo consumers recognize on shelves around the world. The Ultramax and Mocio floor cleaning systems, as well as the Glitzi pot cleaner, became household classics. Vileda became better known year after year – on home turf Germany even 96 percent of consumers are now familiar with Vileda – and expanded its product range. Laundry care products, microfiber cloths and gloves are now also available in the proven Vileda quality. For more than 10 years, Vileda has also been selling products for electric cleaning to make housework easier.
Vileda has always excelled at innovation in particular, Karin Overbeck, CEO of Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions, is certain: "Thanks to innovations such as the Vileda Turbo mop system, for example, consumers no longer have to bend down to wring the dirty water out of a cloth. Today, this can be done quite simply with a foot pedal. We know that this is an important advantage because we involve the people who use our products very closely in our development." Vileda was also quick to respond to consumers' growing awareness of environmental and climate protection. For example, Vileda has long focused on high-quality products that are particularly durable and therefore more resource-efficient than disposable solutions. In addition, Vileda is guided by the principles of the circular economy and develops products and packaging that, thanks to recycling, can be returned to the economic cycle at the end of their life cycle.
Overbeck sees another aspect of the brand's success in the fact that it has always remained modern, even though housework has changed. According to Overbeck, this includes a key insight: "The home is the center of life for most people. And we know: to feel really comfortable at home, it must be clean. A clean home doesn't go out of style, and our slogan 'It feels great to feel at home reflects that belief."
Vileda is known around the world. But associations with the brand differ from country to country. Overbeck: "Although Vileda has always been headquartered in Weinheim, Germany, many Italians, for example, consider Vileda to be a genuine Italian brand. That shows that across countries, people trust Vileda in their own way. And we are particularly proud of that."
Where Vileda is headed in the future is clear to Overbeck: "Many people still make cleaning unnecessarily difficult for themselves. We also want to help these people with solutions for time-saving and convenient household cleaning. So we are far from having reached the end of our success story."
