Like all great success stories, this one too begins with just one person from the pioneer times of the company. Josef Manner, a trained businessman, opened a small shop in 1890 in the heart of Vienna just a stone's throw away from the huge doors of Vienna's St Stephan's cathedral. There he mainly sold bars of chocolate and fig coffee.  Josef Manner pursued the goal from the very beginning to offer better quality chocolate products cheaper than the competitors'. "Every child who spends a Kreuzer on one of my products", he used to say, "should not just get a sweet titbit, but also something of nutritional value".

As Josef Manner's suppliers at the time were not in a position to deliver the desired chocolate quality, the chocolatier from Stephansplatz quickly decided to produce chocolate himself. 

At the age of just 25, Josef Manner I bought a licence, the premises and modest facilities from a small chocolate producer in the 5th district of Vienna in the former Wildenmanngasse – and was, from the 1st March 1890, the new owner of the "Chocoladenfabrik Josef Manner“.

"Chocolate for everyone“ – this was the beginning of the slogan. Today we have an old "rubbing stone" on which the cocoa beans were once ground by hand and a business card, (which shows the trademark "St Stephan's cathedral" in its original form and which has been used ever since) to remind us of these times.

Josef Manner was at first – as was the case of many of his successful colleagues from the "period of promoterism" – a producer, salesclerk and advertising agent in one person and he often even delivered the products to the customers. However, the success made it all worthwhile - already in the year of founding - 1890 - he had to expand. The store at Stephansplatz and the factory in Wildenmanngasse - which very quickly proved to be too small - were sold.

Within not quite a decade the young company "Chocolade Manner" with its slogan "value for money and good" became one of the leading confectioners of the Austro-Hungarian empire and had extended its range of goods to so much more than "Manner-Chocolade“. Whoever looks in a catalogue, will find in addition to bars of chocolate, chocolate sweets and "pure cocoa" in tins, also such articles as raspberry juice, fig coffee, jelly fondant and a number of chocolate figures for children.

Also in the area of organisation the company was innovative and changed the Josef Manner & Co. to a public limited company in 1913. Naturally there were many more milestones in the history of the company.

Meanwhile, the Manner wafer, which has even risen to the level of a Hollywood icon in the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger, was first mentioned in a Manner product catalogue in 1898 under the rather dry name of "Neapolitan wafer No. 239“.

The Manner wafer - whose size 49 x 17 x 17 mms - has not changed to this day, owed its name to an early idea of controlled indication of origin - the hazelnuts in the cream mass between the five wafer layers came from the Naples area - an area that people in Vienna considered almost magical and which awakened Mediterranean desires. 

The rapid success of his enterprise made Josef Manner believe relatively early that it would seem advisable to take a business partner. He found one in his competent accountant Alfred Teller who already joined the company from the third business year with a 50% interest in the company. On the 16th October, 1900 – two years after the invention of the Manner wafers – Teller sold his interest to none other than his brother-in-law, Johann Riedl – and laid thus the foundation for the still continuing fantastic cooperation between the Manner and Riedl families.

Under the management of the successful duo Josef Manner and Johann Riedl the success and turnovers of the enterprise rose continuously. Already in 1904, therefore, the further extension of the Hernals factory had to be started. For nine years, up to 1913, industrious construction activity was the order of the day and because the order books often filled faster than the rooms could be extended, it was not seldom the case that production took place "on the building site“.

After having extended the existing factory building, which had been in existence since 1895, and replacing Manner's old parental home with a practical new building, highly-modern machinery was acquired, which helped the Manner company make the jump to the uncontested number one of the confectionery companies of the Danube Monarchy.

Considering this story of success, the next step was – as for every prosperous company – to go public. On October 23^rd 1913, the Josef Manner & Co company became a stock company named Josef Manner & Comp AG. At the helm of the company (which by then had more than 3,000 employees, over 60 horses and, in the meantime, the most modern production facilities of the time) were Josef Manner and Johann Riedl, who was supported by his four sons and his son-in-law.

When World War I broke out on 28 July 1914, the Manner company faced considerable, but, for the time being, not unresolvable, problems. The company easily managed to get through the first few years of war thanks to a well-stocked store. Later on in 1918 and 1919 the store ran dry and the Hernals confectionery factory had trouble keeping itself afloat. The practically inexhaustible market of the former Danube Monarchy of 56 million people shrank to the just 6 million people of the Austrian First Republic after the end (a disastrous end for Austria) of the First World War. The Manner company suffered under the subsequent inflation and the economic crisis of the thirties in Austria. 

The following decades, which were not just economically hard, proved to be a great test for the second generation who took over the company after Johann Riedl's death in 1929 and Josef Manner's retirement in 1935. These hurdles were overcome thanks to extremely careful business practices and strict economising. 

Also the vague hope that with the Anschluss to the Third Reich new markets could be opened up, proved themselves wrong when the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939 put paid to all investment plans. 

The Manner production building survived the heavy bombing in 1945 without suffering too much damage and the machinery was completely intact. At the end of the war the company was forced into "donating" their last reserves to Stalin, however, this did mean the company had the chance of a tentative new beginning. In the middle of this restart phase the founder of the company, Josef Manner I, died on 5 May 1947.

Unfortunately, the founder of the company did not live to see how the Manner company, after a tentative new start in the late 1940´s, quickly became very much a part of the following economic wonder years and gained international success. Many tried and tested products, which are still popular today, were slightly modernized at this time, in that they were adapted to the increasing demands of the product shelf live.

In 1960 the Manner company then managed the still acclaimed leap into the age of technology with an innovation which is still considered significant today. This is the packaging that keeps the flavor of the Manner wafers in, thanks to double aluminum foil with the typical red tear strip. 

In this way the Manner wafer very quickly became the most successful and bestselling article within the Manner range. In 1964 the Manner company set a milestone thanks to this mega seller. For the first time since 1914 - that is 50 years after the best business year of the company history - the record turnover reached at the end of the Danube Monarchy was surpassed.

To not only safeguard, but also to develop the success, financially strong partners were sought. Already in 1970 the merger with the second largest confectionery company, Napoli, Ragendorfer & Co, owned by the Andres family, took place. With the consequent addition of the brand names Casali and Napoli, Manner could rapidly expand its array of products to make many dreams of those with a sweet tooth come true - for example, Casali chocolate bananas and Napoli Dragee Keksi (iced biscuits). 

The company's main plant is, as is the whole head office, on the historical site of the company in Vienna-Hernals - in the Viennese district, therefore, in which Josef Manner I's parental home was located. 

However, the plant in Lower Austrian Wolkersdorf in the Weinviertel industrial center in the north of Vienna is fitted with equipment which is every bit as modern as that of the main plant.

Fifty countries all around the world see pink when they hear "Manner". This is how far the marketing system of Manner as a global player reaches.  The German market is one of the significant European core markets for Manner & Comp AG. However, attention is currently being paid to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe where the Manner brand has been particularly successful since the economic boom of the "velvet revolution". Thanks to the new members of the EU the Manner export turnover accounts for approximately 50% of the entire turnover.

A clear goal of the company is above all to advance the development of these core markets in the future and give them direct responsibility. The key to this is the step-by-step development of independent marketing organizations in each country. Therefore, a branch was set up in Slovenia in 2004 and since 2006 Manner products have also been directly marketed in Germany. In 2009 Manner successfully started a branch in Czech Republic.