But I will let you read it....... here is the article from The Age newspaper in Australia.
Discuss.....
The coffee giant Gloria Jean's is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that threatens to lift the lid on one of the most secretive companies in Australia.
Owned and run by the Hillsong Church elder Nabi Saleh and the high-profile church member Peter Irvine, Gloria Jean's parent company, Jireh International, is accused of breaking a joint venture agreement with a small US-based coffee supplier, Western Export Services.
Western is suing Jireh for $56 million in unpaid commissions and damages. Jireh has launched a cross-claim, saying the 1996 agreement was invalid.
Feels violated... David Cisneros. Photo: Wolter Peeters
With 489 cafes around Australia and another 432 around the world, the Gloria Jean's coffee chain has global sales estimated at $500 million a year. Its franchisees not only pay a fee, they are also required to enter into an exclusivity deal that obliges them to purchase all their supplies from Jireh International.
''A lot of information people have been trying to find out for so long about this business may finally be revealed in this case,'' said Ross Koffel, lawyer for Western Export Services.
David Cisneros, one of the directors of Western Export Services, said after Western had worked to secure the Australian rights for Gloria Jean's in 1996, Jireh had consistently refused to pay Western the agreed commission on its sale of coffee beans.
''[Mr Saleh and Mr Irvine] had an external accountant who kept giving us numbers that we couldn't trust,'' Mr Cisneros said.
''For us this has been 16 years and this lawsuit has been running for six years. It represented 40 to 50 per cent of our business - we were a small company and we could not just walk away from it.''
It is not the first time Peter Irvine's business dealings have been in the spotlight.
In December, the former chief executive of Mercy Ministries, along with his fellow directors, admitted to engaging in false, misleading and deceptive conduct as part of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation into the practices of the Hillsong-connected organisation. They were required to pay $1050 and apologise to each person affected by Mercy Ministries' conduct.
Mercy Ministries closed in October following revelations that it denied its young female residents appropriate medical care - before then, Gloria Jean's franchisees were required to display a collection box raising money for the ministry on the counter of every store.
''It may seem different because it is business and not Mercy Ministries, but for me, I really felt connected to those other victims,'' said Mr Cisneros.
''You look at their website and they talk about family and community and honesty and trust; these are all the things that they portrayed to us and then violated with us.''
In a statement released at the weekend, Jireh International says it will be ''vigorously defending the matter and denies the allegations contained in the claim''.
The case begins today in the NSW Supreme Court and is expected to run for three weeks.
1 comment:
I knew there was a reason why their coffee left a nasty taste in my mouth....
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