Josef Manner & Comp AG are offering visitors a nostalgic tram ride along Vienna’s Ringstrasse over the weekends leading up to Christmas. Cheerful passengers can take their places on simple but comfortable wooden benches or hold tight to leather strap hangers as the buildings of this magnificent street in the capital glide past the wooden-framed windows. A ticket for the “Manner Christkindl Express” comes free of charge but if you need further incentive, there are crunchy goodies to be had …
It all began in 1889 with a store selling chocolate and fig coffee on Vienna’s Stephansplatz and, a year later, a plan to produce good-quality chocolate for all. These days, Josef Manner & Comp AG specialises in wafers, sugar-coated confectionery and marshmallows.
The Viennese company’s best-known product is Manners Original Neapolitan Wafers, which were invented in 1898 as “Neapolitan Wafer No. 239” (the name refers to the hazelnuts used, which are sourced from the Naples region). The base recipe has not changed and only ingredients of the highest quality have ever been used; even the dimensions of the wafer (a bite-sized 47x17x17 mm), the packaging size and the unique pink tint of the wrapper have been meticulously retained. What is more, Manner wafers have been vegan from the very outset, long before any such considerations became a factor in choosing what to buy.
The packaging underwent a technological upgrade in the 1960s that has enjoyed unrivalled success to this day, with a hermetically sealed, double layer of aluminium foil and a built-in red opening strip.
Someone tucks in to a packet of Manner wafers somewhere in the world every two seconds – which adds up to almost 172,800 units per day or more than 63 million per year, as the company website proudly proclaims. The wafer ingredients are all roasted, baked and produced in Vienna, along with products from the Casali, Napoli, Ildefonso and Victor Schmidt brands, and exported to more than fifty countries.
The business’s links with Vienna go even deeper than the location of its corporate headquarters and production facilities, however – city and firm share the same “trademark”, as company founder Josef Manner I chose Vienna’s St Stephen’s Cathedral as the concern’s logo. It is probably less well known that Manner support conservation work in the cathedral; the building’s official mason is on this traditional company’s payroll and for many years. has been hard at work in pink Manner overalls in the masons’ hut by the cathedral.
And thus the circle is complete, from the present to the very beginnings and back again, and the Manner Christmas tram is getting ready for its next trip – back to the depot, ready for next year.
© ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA
© ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA
