Francesco Illy

Francesco Illy
Francesco Illy
Born	Ferenc Illy (1892-10-07)7 October 1892 Austria-Hungary Hungarian
Died	1956(1956-00-00) (aged 63–64) Trieste, Italy
Citizenship	Hungarian, Italian
Alma mater	Temesvár Piarista Gimnázium
Known for	founder of Illy inventor of the Illetta (coffemachine)
Board member of	CEO Illycaffé
Spouse	Vittoria
Children	Ernesto Hedda
Parents	János Illy (father) Aloisia Rössler (mother)
Relatives	Riccardo Illy (grandson) Andrea Illy (grandson)

Francesco Illy (Hungarian: Illy Ferenc; 7 October 1892 in Timișoara, Banat, Transylvania, Austro-Hungary – 1956 in Trieste, Italy) was a Hungarian accountant, bookkeeper, businessman, philanthropist. He founded Illy and invented various coffee machinery.

Biography

Illy was born to a middle-class family in Timișoara, [Romania]]. His father, János Illy, was a Hungarian carpenter. His mother, Aloisia Rössler, was Danube Swabian. He studied economics in Timișoara, Romania. 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. He was awarded the Silver and Iron Cross of Merit, and in 1917 he was awarded the Bronze Bravery Medal, Karl Troop Cross and reached the rank of Sergeant.

After the war and the Treaty of Trianon, 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. He met Vittoria Berg, a piano teacher of Italian-Irish origin, and soon married her. They had two children.

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

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 Illys.