Manner is a line of confectionery from the Austrian conglomerate Josef Manner & Comp AG. The corporation, founded in 1890, produces a wide assortment of confectionery products. These include wafers, long-life confectionery, chocolate-based confectionery, sweets, cocoa and a variety of seasonal products.[1]
The company's best-known product are the "Neapolitan wafers", introduced in 1898. They are sold in blocks of ten 47 x 17 x 17 mm hazelnut-cream filled wafers. The hazelnuts were originally imported from the Naples region in Italy, hence the name.
The company logo is a picture of St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. This dates to the 1890s, when Josef Manner (1865–1947) opened his first shop next to the cathedral. The Archdiocese of Vienna and the Manner Company agreed that the company may use the cathedral in its logo in return for funding the wages of one stonemason performing repair work on the structure.[2]
History
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.[3] By 1897, the company already had 100 employees.[4] 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.[3] By 1913, Josef Manner had risen to become the leading confectionery producer in Austria-Hungary, when the Wilhelminenstraße in Vienna-Hernals factory which is still in use today, was built. In October 1913, the company was converted into a public limited company and had 3,000 employees.[4]
Trademark St. Stephen's Cathedral
Manner has used Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral as a trademark since 1889, it was designed by Josef Diltsch. On 17 December 1999, Carl Manner received the gold Order of St. Stephen for the services of his company.[19][20]
Original Manner Neapolitan wafers
The Original Manner Neapolitaner Schnitte was first documented in 1898 as "Neapolitaner Schnitte No. 239". Initially, the slices were sold loose.[21] From 1924 the Manner wafers were offered in five rows of two, with a total of 75 g, initially in a folding box, from 1960 in a water vapor-tight packaging made of aluminium-paper composite foil with a tear-off strip and a tab, as a flat, almost square cuboid.[22]
Criticism
In 2022, following a lawsuit by the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Vienna Commercial Court convicted the manufacturer Manner of misleading packaging (not final). The allegation is a deception, since three similar, different-tasting types of slices are packed in bulk bags of the same size, with two types containing 400 grams, but the third type Manner Mozart Mignon only 300 grams.[23]
Products placements
- In the US TV series Friends, Manner wafers are sold as part of a product placement at the Central Perk café. In season 6, they are on display at the counter and are often clearly visible in the background in the café scenes.[24]
- In the 2003 film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the Terminator T-850, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, buys a packet of Manner wafers. €300,000 had to be paid for the product placement.[25]
Trivia
- On 16 October 2008, Austrian Post issued a stamp with Manner's classic advertising motif from the 1950s "... so good" in a circulation of 500,000. The face value of the stamp is 0.55 euros.[26]
- The world's largest waffle oven with a daily capacity of 49 tons is located in the company's production facility in Vienna.[27]
- On 17 July 2014, the day before Carl Manner's 85th birthday, 8,500 packs of Mannerschnitten were set up as dominoes in the ballroom of Vienna City Hall and fell with a single impact. The development of this world record campaign by the marketing department was managed by Marcel Pürrer.[28]
- Carl Manner received his doctorate in mathematics and physics from the University of Vienna in 1952 and joined the company in 1953 at the age of 24. After the partial collapse of a building wing of the Vienna factory on 17 October 2014, he said that the St. Stephen's Cathedral trademark had stood the test and that no one was injured.[29]
Literature
- Oliver Kühschelm: Manner. "Die Schnitte der Patrioten" In: Emil Brix/Ernst Bruckmüller, Hannes Stekl (Hrsg.): Memoria Austriae III – Unternehmer, Firmen, Produkte Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7028-0419-6, p. 97-130.
- Franz Mathis: Big Business in Österreich, Part 1: Österreichische Grossunternehmen in Kurzdarstellungen, Verlag für Geschichte u. Politik, Vienna 1987, p. 196
See also
- St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
External links
References
- Josef Manner & Comp AG Josef Manner & Comp AG, retrieved 2019-04-30^
- Geburtagsmesse für "Manner-Schnitten"-Chef im Stephansdom Archdiocese of Vienna, 17 July 2014, retrieved 2014-09-12^
- Carl Manner (Süßwarenfabrikant) wien.at Video, retrieved 2023-03-22^