Francesco Illy

Francesco Illy
Francesco Illy
Born	Ferenc Illy (1892-10-07) 7 October 1892 Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania)
Died	1956 Trieste, Italy
Residence	Triest, Austria-Hungary
Citizenship	Hungarian
Alma mater	Temesvári Piarista Gimnázium
Known for	founder of illy
Spouse(s)	Vittoria
Children	Ernesto Hedda
Parents	János Illy (father) Aloisia Rössler (mother)
Relatives	Riccardo Illy (grandson) Andrea Illy (grandson)

Francesco Illy (Hungarian: Illy Ferenc; 1892, Temesvár, Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania) – 1956, Trieste, Italy) was a Hungarian financial accountant, bookkeeper, business magnate, philantropist, the founder of illy and inventor of coffee machinery.

Biography

Illy was born to a middle class family in Timisoara. His father, János Illy was a carpenter. His mother, Aloisia Rössler was Danube Swabian. He studied economics in Timisoara. After secondary school he moved to Vienna, where he worked for two big Transylvanian companies. At the age of 22 he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, and served from 1914 at almost every front of the First World War, including at the Battle of Kraśnik and the Battles of the Isonzo.

After the war he stayed with his sister in Trieste, where he soon married a Triestine woman. He found work with companies dealing with cocoa and coffee roasting. He later invented his own method for maintaining the quality of freshly roasted coffee so it could be delivered to other locations rather than roasting it on site. He formed a partnership with the local coffee manufacturers Hausbrandt.

In 1933 Illy founded illycaffè,^[1] which invented the first automatic coffee machine which substituted pressurized water for steam. The Illetta became the predecessor of today's espresso machine.^[2]

His son, the food chemist Ernesto Illy (1925–2008) took over the management of the coffee company, which is now in the hands of the third generation Illy's.

References