Manheimer Family collection

Joseph Bernard emigrated from France to New York in 1864 to start a division of Leo Bernard and Co., a business importing essential oils, perfume, and soap ingredients from their factory in France. In addition to his own imports of floral, spice, and citrus naturals, he represented as an agent for other French, Belgium, and German producers: A Ducros, Hugues Aine, Haarmann & Reimer, and DeLaire & Co., along with a Bulgarian rose producer.

In 1876, Jacob Manheimer, a 12-year-old son of an immigrant butcher, knocked on Bernard’s door seeking employment. At 19, Manheimer worked his way into an opportunity to buy and sell in Europe, leading to the opportunity to acquire the business from Bernard who was returning to France to retire. The Bernard business was acquired in 1895 by Jacob Manheimer and James Eben; the business was renamed to Manheimer and Eben. When Eben retired in 1905, Maheimer’s brother, Isaac Manheimer (1874-1945) joined him as an employee, renaming the business to J. Manheimer.

While the business originally dealt with local apothecaries, soap factories, toiletry companies, and drug manufacturers and pharmacies, changes in Manheimer’s capability and market opportunities, led to business developments and collaborations with multinational conglomerate corporations—providing them with flavor and fragrance ingredients and compositions.

Jacob Manheimer had no children of his own, which led to the expansion of the business through his nephews, Paul (1907-1982) and Edwin Manheimer (1912-1962) in the late 1930s. The business grew modestly as an importer of vanilla beans and essential oils, leading to the emergence of the flavor and fragrance compound business, to include beverage, confectionery, and savory and spice flavors, naturally sourced with organically derived materials. Soon after Edwin Manheimer’s untimely death, the business was recapitalized with Stephen (1941-), Arnold (1945-) and Alan Manheimer (1945-), joining Paul and Bruce (1939-1996) Manheimer in 1961 as a new corporation, J. Manheimer, Inc.

Bruce, Arnold, Alan, and Stephen joined the business in 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1967, respectively. This led to further growth of the business, from its original base with a limited pallet of imported essentials oils and vanilla beans, the brothers and cousins developed a new source of flavors and fragrances with raw materials from India, China, South America and Indonesia. This led to the expansion of the business to include beverage ingredients and flavors, seasoning compositions, pharmaceutical, soap, and household products, including detergents and surface cleaners.

Stephen Manheimer served as a president of the company from 1976. In 1993, Stephen Manheimer’s daughter, Karen Manheimer (1967-), joined the company. In 2003, the Manheimers, including Alan and Arnold, decided that further would require a new paradigm. They went through formal sales process with Kerry/Mastertaste being chosen as the owner, Manheimer became a platform for the growth aspirations of Kerry/Mastertaste in North America. The sale of the company closed in May 2004; Kerry carries on many of the Manheimer traditions in various product lines.