Gloria Jean's Coffees
Gloria Jean's Coffees was founded by Gloria Jean Kvetko in 1979 in Long Grove, Ill., a small town just outside Chicago. The firm began as a small coffee and gift shop in Chicago and grew to over 50 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 brand for all other countries from Diedrich Coffee, Inc, with the exceptions of the US 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.
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, making the brand available 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.
There are eleven Gloria Jean's Coffees in the Philippines today. One of them is located at Hotel Supreme Convention Plaza which opened in 2004 operated by Mrs. Evelyn Choy-Ng
