Founded in 1933, Lavazza's top coffee roaster today has annual sales of about $574 million. Despite its ubiquity in Italy, illy accounts for only 0.2% of the global coffee market (2017 figures) globally, while its old rival Lavazza has a 2.5% share. It is worth mentioning that the predecessor of today's espresso machine was invented by Francesco Illy, the founder of illy, who developed the world's first automatic coffee machine, illetta, which separated the pressure system from the heating system.
 
In 1999, illy opened illycaffè University, a leading provider of coffee education and coffee education, with campuses in 26 countries and regions around the world, and has since provided professional coffee training and education to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Illy Coffee University trainees include estate farmers, coffee farmers, and general enthusiasts, and some courses are expensive, but coffee farmers can attend all courses for free.
 
illy is not a member of the Fair Trade Organization and does not follow fair trade principles when sourcing coffee beans, but illy has been sourcing green beans from farms of origin since the late 80s of the 20th century, rather than international exchanges. In addition, if the coffee grower is a trainee of illy Coffee University, illy will purchase the coffee at a price of 10-30% above the usual price, without requiring an exclusive contract.
 
illy's roasting plant is located in Italy, where green beans from all the world's coffee-producing countries are packed in sacks, and when they arrive in Italy, they first remove metal flakes and branches from the green beans, and then separate defective beans such as moldy beans and unripe beans through a color sorter, and illy screens up to 45 tons of green beans every day.
 
Unlike the common one-way vent valve packaging and vacuum packaging, illy uses inert gas pressurized packaging, which puts the coffee beans into a tank after roasting and is pressurized with nitrogen, so that the coffee beans are slowly matured in a pressurized environment. In terms of delaying the oxidation of coffee beans, the effect of nitrogen pressure packaging is obvious, and the final flavor of the beans will be relatively smooth and round.
 
illy's coffee bean product line is relatively simple, with three blends of the same recipe and different roast levels: medium roast, dark roast and low caffeine. In order to achieve a rich oil, Robusta beans are commonly used in the formula of espresso, and these three blends from illy use 100% Arabica beans from nine major coffee producing regions around the world, and the flavor is better than that of traditional Italian blends. It is worth mentioning that illy's decaffeinated coffee beans use a supercritical carbon dioxide treatment to remove 96-98% of the caffeineine, resulting in a caffeine content of only 0.05%, while retaining the signature cocoa, toast and floral aromas of medium-roasted coffee beans, which can be drunk at night without affecting sleep at all.