Gloria Jean's Coffees

Gloria Jean's Coffees

Founded	1979 (USA); 1996 (Australia) 2001 (Bangladesh) 2004 (India)
Founder	Ed & Gloria Jean Kvetko (USA)
Headquarters	Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Number of locations	1000 in more than 39 countries
Products	Hot and Cold Beverages
Owner	Retail Food Group
Website	www.gloriajeanscoffees.com

Gloria Jean's Coffees is a franchised specialty coffeehouse company that has opened more than 1,000 coffee houses across 39 markets worldwide, including over 460 in Australia. In 2014 Gloria Jeans was purchased by the Retail Food Group for $163.5 million.

Gloria Jean's Coffees was founded by Gloria Jean Kvetko in 1979 in Chicago, USA. Gloria Jean's Coffees began as a small coffee and gift shop in Chicago USA which now has over 110 locations throughout the US. In 1995, Nabi Saleh and Peter Irvine, former managing director of advertising agency DDB Needham, visited the United States to sample the Gloria Jean's Coffees brand. Saleh and Irvine identified the opportunity for this brand in Australia, purchasing the international licensing rights from Diedrich Coffee, Inc.

Saleh and Irvine established Jireh International Pty Ltd (trading as Gloria Jeans Coffees), the company that holds the right to franchise Gloria Jean's Coffees in Australia, and purchased the rights to the Gloria Jean's Coffees brand for all other countries from Diedrich Coffee, Inc, with the exceptions of the USA and Puerto Rico. In late 1996, Jireh International Pty Ltd opened the first Gloria Jean's coffee house in Miranda, Sydney, and two weeks later another in Eastgardens, also in Sydney. These coffee house were set up to test the concept in the Australian market.

In early 1998, Gloria Jean's Coffees Australia franchised its first store and within six years had opened 185 stores owned and operated by more than 100 franchisees. In 2003, a franchise opened in Darwin; this meant that the brand was now established in every Australian state, the ACT and NT. Jireh International Pty Ltd formed a North American Affiliate, Praise International North America, Inc. and as of 14 June 2009, which also operates It's A Grind Coffee House in 13 states. the North American rights were sold by Diedrich Coffee to the American Affiliate of the Australian holding company.

In 2013, Gloria Jean's was set to be purchased by the publicly listed Singaporean company, Yellow Pages Singapore, for $35.6 million. Yellow Pages Singapore later pulled out of the purchase, and Gloria Jeans was bought by the Australian Retail Food Group

Gloria Jeans sells their own version of the Caffitaly system capsule coffee machine as well as their brand of capsules. The Gloria Jeans Caffitaly Capsules are also available at Woolworths Supermarkets.