Under his leadership, the company diversified following the First World War, taking up the production of gear units and electric motors for gramophones as its military research efforts halted.

This dire situation gave rise to the birth of the “Vorwerk Kobold” in 1929: chief engineer Engelbert Gorissen developed out of a gramophone motor a high-performance electric upright vacuum cleaner.

Only when direct sales were launched in 1930 – the brainchild of Werner Mittelsten Scheid (1904–1953), a son of the company founder – did the product meet with success.

While up to the end of the 1960s the company focused mainly on the production and sale of vacuum cleaners, carpets and upholstery fabrics, ever since that time it has continually diversified, initially into the services sector.

Vorwerk was co-founder of the akf bank in 1968; in 1970 the in-house data processing department brought forth the ZEDA Gesellschaft für Datenverarbeitung und EDV-Beratung mbH & Co. KG;[9] and the founding of Hygienic Service Gebäudereinigung und Umweltpflege GmbH in 1974 was the germ cell that led to the Hectas Facility Services division.

In 2001, Vorwerk purchased the Lux Asia Pacific direct sales organization from the Swedish Electrolux group, thus consolidating its position on the Asian market.

[14] The same year, Vorwerk sold Jafra Cosmetics to the Mexican direct sales company Betterware for USD 255 million.

as well as sales companies in Australia, China, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Japan, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the United States.

[20] Vorwerk is primarily known for its production and sales of household appliances, such as Kobold and Thermomix, with the latter being the company's biggest revenue contributor.