Chocolate for everyone

This was Josef Manner's motto when he founded the confectionery dynasty in 1890. At the time, chocolate was a luxury item. One kilogram of chocolate cost the equivalent of two day's work for the average labourer. Josef Manner I, a merchant by trade, had a small shop in Stephansplatz in the heart of Vienna where he sold chocolates and coffee.

However, not satisfied with the quality of the chocolate he was buying from his supplier he decided to go into chocolate production himself. At the age of 25, Josef Manner approached a small chocolate producer and made an offer for his license to manufacture, his modest equipment and his premises in Wildenmanngasse. On March 1, 1890 he founded the "Josef Manner Chocolate Factory".

Josef Manner was a manufacturer, a salesman and an advertising agent all rolled into one, and more often than not he would even deliver the chocolate himself to his customers. He sold the shop in Stephansplatz to devote all his time and energy to chocolate production. Soon the factory in Wildenmanngasse was too small.

Within a year of founding the company, Josef Manner moved to his parents' house in the Hernals district of Vienna, to Uniongasse 8, later Kulmgasse 14. A factory soon sprang up around his parents' house, and by 1897 he had 100 people on his payroll.

Under Josef Manner and his partner Johann Riedl, who came on the scene in 1900, the company went from strength to strength. By installing the latest machinery and reducing their prices, the name of Manner came to be associated with value for money and high quality - a sure recipe for success. Before long, the company became the leading suppliers of confectionery to the Austro-Hungarian empire. In keeping with their new status, the partners converted the business to a joint stock company.

In the early days the product range included bars of chocolate, "Manner-Chocolade" for general consumption, chocolate sweets, and "pure cocoa" in tins.

Their famous wafers were first recorded in 1898 as "Neapolitan Wafers No. 239", so called because the hazelnuts for the filling made from sugar, cocoa butter and cocoa powder came from the Napoli region. Measuring 47 x 17 x 17 mm they were perfect bite-size treats with four layers of filling between five layers of wafer. This format and the basic recipe have remained unchanged to the present day.

At first, the wafers were sold loose so that all citizen could afford one now and again. In 1898 an unskilled worker could buy 7 and 1/2 wafers with one hour's pay. Today the minimum hourly wage would buy about 15 packages à 10 pieces.

The wafers were originally packed in boxes tied with pink ribbons; later they were supplied to shopkeepers in tins. In 1924 Manner wafers were presented for the first time in the familiar two rows of five, but still in a cardboard box.

The bag-package with aluminium foil appeared on the scene in 1949, followed by hermetically sealed packaging with a tear strip in the 1960's. Ever since, this has been the most successful and largest product in the range.The packaging for Manner wafers is an example of Austrian classical-design at its best and is often included in design exhibitions.

Manner has an exquisite range of classics that are loved and sought-after all over the world.
Here a foretaste.

 Josef Manner & Comp.AG
Wilhelminenstraße 6
A -1170 Wien
Tel.: +43 1 488 22-0
E-Mail: j.manner@manner.com
Internet: www.manner.com