Julius Meinl International (), also known simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by their high level of refined and elaborate food preparation techniques and displays of balanced meals that have ...

foods and other

grocery A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

products. The company is based in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria. It is named after its founders

Julius Meinl I Julius Meinl I (10 April 1824 – 24 December 1914) was an Austrian businessman and the founder of Julius Meinl AG, commonly known as Julius Meinl. Meinl was born in Graslitz (Kraslice), Bohemia. He based his coffee roasting company in Vienna, ...

and Julius Meinl II.

History

Julius Meinl I was the founder of a new category, selling ready roasted coffee for the first time in 1862. In German-occupied Warsaw and Minsk, Meinl owned four grocery and luxury food shops where locals were not allowed to shop. Julius Meinl III ceded control of the company to his son in 1987. The retail division of the group, except the high-profile flagship store in downtown Vienna, was sold to

Rewe Rewe (stylized as REWE; ) is a supermarket chain in Germany and the main brand of Rewe Group headquartered in Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of ...

Julius Meinl V Julius Meinl V (born 9 July 1959) is a British businessman, resident in Prague Czech Republic (since end of August 2013). He heads a substantial family business which was originally built upon the production and retailing of food products, and ...

in 1998–1999. Later the company's name was changed to Ragusa Beteiligungen, and the company was delisted from the

Vienna Stock Exchange Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in February 2007. Today Julius Meinl is a leading coffee company in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and selling coffees and teas in more than 70 countries. The motto of the company is "How may I serve you?" Fifth generation family members are still working in the business. Its "Pay with a Poem" campaign has been running since 2014, inspiring people worldwide to pay for their coffee or tea worldwide with a poem. This campaign started in Bucharest at "Les Bourgeois", a very nice place in Old Town. Julius Meinl formerly operated two coffee shops in the U.S., both on the North Side of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, before closing its final location in 2022. Julius Meinl operates one location in North Geelong, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Christina Meinl was appointed president of the Global Specialty Coffee Association in February 2020. Meinl aims to boost the sustainable specialty coffee agenda, expand the SCA's global network supporting local communities, and increase diversity within the organisation.

Logo

The first logo of the company was designed in 1924 by Joseph Binder, a Viennese graphic designer. The logo depicted a dark-skinned boy with a red fez on his head, as a hint to the origin of the coffee. The design has changed significantly over the years, but the silhouette of a boy has remained its core part. In 2004, Italian designer

Matteo Thun Matteo Thun (full name Mathäus Antonius Maria Graf von Thun and Hohenstein, 17 June 1952 Bolzano, Italy) is an Italian architect and designer. Early life Mathäus Antonius Maria Graf von Thun und Hohenstein was born in Bolzano in 1952. He was t ...

performed a redesign of the logo, making him look upright and using a single colour for the whole logo, effectively eliminating the boy's dark skin colour. In 2007, an initiative called ''Mein Julius'' (English: "My Julius") started using the original version of the logo to protest against racist stereotypes and misinterpretations of Africa and the colonial period. This initiative has not indicated that they used the pre-redesign version of the logo, which led to criticism of the initiative itself.

External links

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References

Coffee companies of Austria Food and drink companies based in Vienna Food and drink companies established in 1862 Retail companies established in 1862 Food and drink companies of Austria 1862 establishments in the Austrian Empire Austrian brands {{Austria-company-stub