Gloria Jean’s Coffees, has opened its first coffee house in Lebanon. 

The market opening in Beirut’s Hamra district takes Gloria Jean’s Coffees International’s global presence to 917 coffee houses across 38 master franchises in 37 countries worldwide.

Lebanon master franchise partner, The Purple Concept, was appointed in October to launch Gloria Jean’s Coffees in the market. The group already runs a successful convenience grocery outlet business, Dekanneh, in Beirut, and plans to open two additional Gloria Jean’s Coffees stores in Lebanon by 2011.

Executive chairman of Gloria Jean’s Coffees, Nabi Saleh, said the new market further demonstrates the brand’s popularity within the developing coffee culture of the Middle East.

“The Middle East is one of the world’s most rapid retail growth regions where we’ve enjoyed considerable expansion over the last few years,” Saleh said.

“We are very excited to bring our handcrafted coffee experience to Lebanon. While this market has a traditionally strong coffee drinking culture, we are bringing a new experience to our guests in Beirut.”

Gloria Jean’s Coffees Beirut coffee house is one of the few ‘smoke free’ cafés in the market and is already garnering support for the concept by the local public health authorities and university students.

“Our smoke-free store has been welcomed by the local community in a city where the concept is still widely unavailable. We enjoyed a very successful first week of trading and expect Beirut to be a hugely valuable addition to our growing Middle Eastern market,” Saleh said.

Gloria Jean’s Coffees currently has 66 stores across the Middle East in UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt and Bahrain.