Rise to become the leading confection company The experienced businessman Josef Manner ran a small shop on
Stephansplatz in Vienna, where he offered chocolate and fig coffee. Manner acquired the concession and the premises of a small chocolate producer in
Margareten and founded the "Josef Manner Chocolate Factory" on 1 March 1890 together with his brothers. Just six months later they moved to
Hernals. By 1897, the company already had 100 employees. The Manner cut was invented in 1898. In 1900, Johann Georg Riedl took over half of the shares in the company and laid the foundation for the collaboration between the families that continues to this day. Due to restrictions of the economic crisis of 1935, the company had to reduce the share capital from 6 to 4.5 million
schillings and the company founder Josef Manner withdrew from the operative business the same year.
Second World War During the National Socialist period, Manner benefited from orders from the
Wehrmacht, the "
Aryanization" of Jewish property and the exploitation of
forced labourers. Despite all the cuts, growth was recorded during the
Second World War, and the 1939 financial year was "generally satisfactory". In the 1941 financial year an income of 3.3 million
Reichsmarks was generated and a dividend of 6% was distributed. According to Carl Manner, the company was conscripted as an "army supplier" and produced chocolate and biscuits for the troops of the German Wehrmacht, and the
Scho-Ka-Kola known as "Fliegerschokolade" was produced for the Luftwaffe pilots. At that time, Manner was a wartime operation and was allocated cocoa beans until 1945. The company was also under the management of a National Socialist works manager, the son of the company founder was only active as a technical manager in the company. The bombardments caused relatively little damage to the factory building. In 2005, the announcement by the Austrian
Federal Monuments Office caused a stir that it intended to place the Manner building on Wilhelminenstraße 6 in Vienna-
Hernals under
monument protection. The company management replied that the relocation of the production facility would be the result for economic reasons, which would cause outrage among a large part of the Viennese population. Manner has been running a flagship store on Stephansplatz in the
Episcopal Palace since June 2004. There has been a flagship store at Vienna Airport since June 2006. With the aim of increasing sales in foreign markets, Manner opened its own sales subsidiaries in Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Germany. In 2010, Manner set up a shop with a café on Residenzplatz in
Salzburg. On 10 May 2018, a Manner shop was opened in Graz on the main square, and on 19 July 2019 one opened in the Murpark shopping centre. Manner's total turnover in 2009 was 155.4 million euros with an export quota of approximately 55%. This resulted in an annual surplus of 4.496 million euros and a balance sheet profit of 1.89 million euros. At the end of 2011, Manner announced the expansion of the Vienna site, where the production of waffles was to be concentrated beginning in 2015. At the same time, concepts for the subsequent use of the Perg site were being worked on. In 2013 a profit of around 180 million euros were achieved and around 40 million euros were invested in the Vienna plant. On 17 October 2014, part of the Manner factory in Hernals which was undergoing renovations, collapsed. In 2016, the production facilities were temporarily relocated from Perg in Upper Austria to Vienna.
Carl Manner ran the company as the third generation until his death in 2017. He was a member of the company's Management Board from 1970 and most recently President of the Supervisory Board. The plant in Vienna was extensively renovated. At the same time and in cooperation with Wien Energie, the use of waste heat from the exhaust air was installed in 2017 theoretically supplying around 600 households with
district heating. In 2020, the conversion was completed where the factory in Perg was closed and the machines from there were installed in Vienna. == Trademark St. Stephen's Cathedral ==