Gloria Jean Kvetko on the 2021 grand opening of a Gloria Jean’s Espresso Chicago headquarters. RFG press picture.
Gloria Jean Kvetko, the Chicagoland entrepreneur who based Gloria Jean’s Espresso in 1979, died on June 14 on the age of 82.
Born in Chicago in 1941, Kvetko’s first entrepreneurial enterprise was a magnificence store known as Gloria’s Studio One in Wheeling, Illinois. In 1979, Kvetko bought an present espresso store in historic downtown Lengthy Grove, Illinois, and named it Gloria Jean’s Espresso Bean.
By the mid Nineteen Eighties, Kvetko expanded Gloria Jean’s to purchasing facilities nationwide, offering conventional drip espresso and espresso-based choices with an unapologetic menu of sweetened blended iced drinks and intensely flavored coffees.
Competing with different quickly increasing U.S. rivals resembling Starbucks, Peet’s and The Espresso Bean and Tea Leaf, Gloria Jean’s relied upon a franchise mannequin, ultimately increasing to greater than 220 shops all through the U.S. beneath Kvetko’s watch.
Nonetheless in her early 50s, Kvetko offered Gloria Jean’s in 1993, and the model has since modified possession quite a few instances, increasing to roughly 900 places worldwide at the moment. The model is at present owned by Australia-based Retail Meals Group (RFG).
Three years in the past, Kvetko joined Retail Meals Group to re-establish a Chicago headquarters for the model with a watch in the direction of extra franchising. On that event, she recalled Gloria Jean’s affect within the synthetic flavoring of roasted coffees.
“Hazelnut — it was like discovering God,” Kvetko informed visitors at a grand opening launch. “Once I informed my husband we’re placing flavored coffees on the shelf, he simply went nuts – “no!” — and I mentioned, ‘too unhealthy, you lose, doing it.’ And that modified the espresso world instantly.”
An obituary within the Chicago Tribune remembers Kvetko as “the lifetime of the celebration” with an “infectious smile, welcoming demeanor, zest for all times and unwavering willingness to assist others.”
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