Gloria Jean's Coffees

History

Gloria Jean's Coffees, often shortened to just Gloria Jean's, is a coffeehouse chain with Australian and American roots. Its headquarters are in Castle Hill, Sydney, and it is owned by Retail Food Group, a multinational fast casual restaurant conglomerate. The chain operates over 599 stores across 40 countries, with more than 140 of those in Australia.

The brand was started in 1979 by Gloria Jean Kvetko in Long Grove, Illinois, a small town near Chicago. It began as a small coffee and gift shop and eventually expanded to more than 50 locations in the United States after Coffee People bought the franchising rights. In 1995, Nabi Saleh and Peter Irvine, the former managing director of the advertising agency DDB Needham, founded Gloria Jean's Coffees Australia and secured the Australian franchising rights from Coffee People.

The first Australian store opened in late 1996 at Westfield Miranda in Sydney, followed two weeks later by another at Westfield Eastgardens, also in Sydney. The first franchised store opened in early 1998, and within six years, there were 185 stores run by over 100 franchisees. In July 1999, Diedrich Coffee bought Coffee People, the U.S. owner of the Gloria Jean's brand. By 2003, a franchise opened in Darwin, Northern Territory, making the brand available in every Australian state and territory.

In 2004, Gloria Jean's Coffees Australia bought the branding and roasting rights for all territories outside the United States and Puerto Rico from Diedrich Coffee, setting up Gloria Jean's Coffees International to manage non-Australian operations. In 2009, Gloria Jean's Coffees International purchased the U.S. and Puerto Rican franchise rights from Diedrich Coffee, gaining exclusive worldwide franchising rights. Diedrich kept the rights to use the Gloria Jean's brand in North America for coffee wholesaling and Keurig coffee pods.

In 2013, Yellow Pages Singapore announced a deal to buy the Australian and international operations for AU$35.6 million, but later pulled out. In 2014, Retail Food Group bought Gloria Jean's for $163.5 million.

Controversies

In 2009, Gloria Jean's was criticised for the sugar and fat content of some of their products. Analysis of a regular 'Gloria Jean's Mocha Chiller Coco Loco' revealed it contained 95.5 g of sugar, which is 106 percent of an adult's recommended daily intake. They have also been criticised for failing to provide nutritional information to their customers. Gloria Jean's now provides nutrition and ingredient information.

In April 2010, Gloria Jean's Australia was accused of breaking a joint venture agreement with a small US-based coffee supplier, Western Export Services. The matter was resolved in the High Court of Australia, in October 2011, with Western Export Services' appeal being dismissed. In November 2010, in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election, Gloria Jean's donated $30,000 to the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). This donation and Gloria Jean's links to the evangelical Hillsong Church led to a national boycott of its stores.

Social media campaigns in support of the boycott on Facebook and a petition on Change.org resulted in thousands of supporters. As a direct result of this donation, national youth mental health foundation headspace pulled out as a partner of the suicide awareness campaign R U OK?, of which Gloria Jean's was a major sponsor. Gloria Jean's released a statement on 11 June 2012 stating 'this was a once off donation'. Both Gloria Jean's and the ACL claim that the monies were provided as advertising.

Change of management in December 2014 has led some LGBT community members to question the relevance of a continuing boycott. In February 2014, a Gloria Jean's franchise in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield was fined $110,000 for underpaying staff following an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman which found that 22 workers were paid as little as $8 per hour (or around half the minimum wage). In December 2022, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission won a civil court case against the owner of Gloria Jean's, Retail Food Group, resulting in Michel's Patisserie and Gloria Jean's franchises receiving repayments and debt erasures totalling $10 million as part of a settlement relating to allegedly illegitimate marketing expenses and allegedly being sold loss-making shops.