It’s 5:30 a.m. and John Kelly is busy washing thermoses, coffee pots and preparing equipment, just part of his 12-hour day ritual.

Owner of Jack Kelly the Coffee Man’s Penticton location, the entrepreneur isn’t just another paper shuffler.  Rather, he dives head-first manning the java stop drive-thru and welcoming customers to his family business.

While Kelly enjoys the work and is proud of his family-owned company, he still finds the daily grind wearing.

“The hours I put in I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” said the entrepreneur, adding his children, three and four, are too young to help out with the family business just yet.

But wife Tracy makes a big contribution by creating retail coffee gift baskets and working on promoting the company.

Kelly purchased the company from its namesake — his father — 13 years ago, and has seen the family company grow in leaps and bounds since its humble beginnings in 1972.

Befriending hockey hall-of-famer and former Penticton resident Larry Lund while living in Arizona, Kelly’s father learned that Penticton might benefit from a coffee supplier.

The senior Kelly discovered a lack of office coffee suppliers in the area and decided to make the move from Arizona (he had also worked in the coffee business in Edmonton) to the Peach City and put the coffee on for the community.

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