Our story

The story of Manufaktura began in summer 1991. Prague was newly opened to the whole world and we had an idea to set up a shop with Czech folk crafts and wooden toys in the historic centre of Prague, where tourists could buy high-quality local products. 

We set off to the country, made contacts with local craftsmen and small producers and bought wooden toys, corn husk dolls, Easter eggs and others. We discovered lovely premises in a former laundry of the Dominican monastery in Jilská street and opened our first shop. 

We gradually brought together more than 250 small craftsmen, former masters of folk art, bearers of traditions and small Czech companies.

We soon realized that our concept was very attractive to tourists and set up other shops in the centre of Prague. 

Thanks to the fact that we managed to ensure regular sale and cooperation in development, design and protection of products, we created conditions for preserving plenty of disappearing crafts. 

A part of the range is still offered in four brick-and-mortar shops and we continue to cooperate with the Ministry of Culture.

In 1995 we became the first Czech company that won the Czech Made Award for operating a sales network from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. 

The main motto of our shops was and still is “Czechness, traditions and high quality”. 

Design and atmosphere are particularly important elements. Our customers still appreciate the original range, ingenious interior solutions, fragrances, cosiness and excellent customer service.

We were considering own assortment that can reach also Czech customers. 

The idea to launch production of soaps was surprisingly inspired by the magic of the place of our main warehouse at that time. It was located in the premises of the former Kadlec soapworks in Libeň. We delved into the history, engaged universities and cosmetic experts in cooperation and gradually launched a project of production of Czech glycerine soaps. 

In early 1998 we started to sell our own fragrant herbal soaps.

Our soaps thrived for a long time, we enjoyed production of cosmetics, so embarked on another ambitious project in our small workshop in Prague - Střížkov, i.e. development of shower gel, bath salt, bath foam and candles and expansion of types of soaps. 

We made up own original containers - bottles into which we put dried leaves, pieces of wood, and burnt our logo onto them.

In 2002 the most destroying floods in history devastated our country and Prague was particularly affected by 1000-year water. 

Travel industry was “turned off” almost overnight, which confirmed our idea to pursue the development of own products, focus on local customers and wholesale. 

We launched 5 comprehensive cosmetic ranges with the scent of chamomile and vanilla, green tea and mint, rose and rowan, lemon balm and pear, plum and lavender. Simultaneously, we established a sales department and launched wholesale activities in the Czech Republic and abroad.

We enjoyed producing and selling cosmetics but competition was increasing, so we were looking for a direction that will make us clearly different. 

At the time when “exotic was in”, we decided to bet primarily on local ingredients and inspiration by Czech traditions and history.  We came up with an idea of home spa and launched a range based on Carlsbad thermal spring salt, kaolin and peat.

In subsequent years we launched many more collections exploiting local ingredients.

The biggest shopping mall in the Czech republic, Chodov Shopping Centre, was open in Prague and we set up our first shop in a shopping mall. 

Initially, we offered cosmetics, toys and folk craft but we gradually reduced the range and the shop was purely cosmetic. 

The first interior design bet on dark colours, wooden furniture and a big deal of historicizing decorations that we bought in antique shops all over the country.

Our initial production premises in Prague-Střížkov were no more sufficient with the expanding development of cosmetics, so we moved to Čakovice, to the historical building of a former sugar factory. 

We supplemented our production in new production technologies, enjoyed new laboratories, implemented new logistic systems and were developing the assortment. 

We focused also on face care products to a greater extent.

In 2007 we launched a collection of beer cosmetics based on true Czech beer, brewer´s yeast and hops extract. 

The original beer shampoo inspired by wisdom of our grandmothers, who rinsed their hair with beer to enhance its shine, volume and vitality, became the star of the collection. 

Today the beer shampoo is our iconic product, unbeatable best-seller, which we have already sold more than 1,600,000 pieces.

For many companies the year 2008 was challenging with regard to the economic crisis and some of them had to leave the market. Fortunately, we were doing well and took advantage of available premises in shopping malls and extended our shop network. 

We came up with new design of our shops, i.e. used green colour evoking nature, lit white wooden cupboards with lamps and created a cute home effect. We still used historicizing decorations. 

A large part of the premises was devoted to compositions with soaps and bath salts.

Thanks to the personal meeting with Zdeněk Miler (author of the legendary Little Mole) and the story of our company, we as the 1^st cosmetic brand managed to obtain a licence to use the motif of the Little Mole for our children´s cosmetics with chamomile.  We were excited to launch our first children´s cosmetic collection with extra delicate natural formula!

The same year, after an intense audit, we got a unique globally recognized certificate of Human Cosmetics Standard (today known as the Leaping Bunny) awarded by the Cruelty Free International organization.

It commits us not to use ingredients tested on animals and not to outsource testing on animals anywhere in the world (luckily, it is forbidden in Bohemia).

 

Since we know that customers like surprise and news, we came up with a project of seasonal limited editions, which we have been launching until today. We bet on trends, local themes and nostalgic scents.

The first limited collection of MOJITO, which was also name of the most popular drink in our country at that time, became a summer hit. We pleased our customers also with raspberry, apricot, currant, plum, cucumber, chocolate... 

Some editions were so popular that we included them in the regular range later on. 

We decided to follow up our long-term wholesale relationships in Slovakia and gradually build a smaller sales network in this neighbouring country, which is so close to us. 

The first branded shop was open in the Central shopping mall in Bratislava. Žilina, Košice and Trenčín followed...

A Japanese entrepreneur fell in love with our cosmetics and shops and dreamt up launching Manufaktura in Japan. 

After long “courting” and demanding certification processes, which are the strictest in the world, his dream came true and several points of sale were really set up in Japan. 

We were pleased too, because it confirmed top quality of our products.

The higher quality of our products, the broader the range and the more invested energy in our shops and the level of sales staff, the more we were sorry to find out that our products were poorly presented and outside our sales network. 

After challenging debates, we achieved a radical solution: to terminate wholesale activities gradually and focus only on the best quality of our products and our sales network. 

For many people it was an incomprehensible step... Looking back it was a courageous but great decision, which moved us forward and increased the value of our brand.

In 2016 we held a big press conference in Prague Jazz-Dock to celebrate 25^th anniversary. 

We had 50 own branded shops in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, operated a modern online store, had pleased more than 10 million customers and sold over 37,000,000 products.  

The same year we were shortlisted in the prestigious competition of the EuroShop Retail Design Award concerning the most beautiful shop in the world and we got on the front page of the Brand & Stories magazine. 

One year later we overcame the turnover of CZK 500 million for the first time. A lot to celebrate, we were doing well.

Ecology and sustainability have been our natural part since the very beginning. 

In 2018 we launched a project of packaging our products into containers made of 25-50% recycled plastic. We manage to save more than 10 tons of plastic per year since then. We significantly use original old furniture in our shops, which is restored by skilful craftsmen. 

This year we also won 1^st place in the prestigious KPMG ranking, according of which Manufaktura provided the best customer experience in the Czech Republic.

In 2019 we launched a project of hotel cosmetics with the Daisy collection in cooperation with the French company Aficom - the world´s leading supplier of premium hotel cosmetics (GROUP G.M. today).

Manufaktura became part of the portfolio of this major French company and ranked among prestigious world brands, which this company represents in selected 4 – 5star hotels in the Czech and Slovak Republic and other countries of the Central Europe. 

One of the first hotels that ordered our cosmetics was the legendary Carlsbad Pupp, followed by the iconic Ještěd and others.

The Planet was affected by COVID-19. All of a sudden, the travel industry ceased to exist, our shops were repeatedly closed and the most challenging period that we had never experienced before began. 

Our certified mint hand sanitizer, which we hardly had time and capacity to produce and distribute, became an unexpected saviour. Although we struggled with many problems, we managed to give part of our production to the subjects that tend to be neglected, such as children´s homes, hospices and others. 

Every cloud has a silver lining, so this challenging period made us intensively develop our online store and launch a loyalty programme.

COVID-19 was still on and the situation was not stabilized at all, however, we kept on going and were glad that we successfully overcame these difficult times without having to reduce our sales network or production. 

We launched a new interesting collection of MEADOW, which includes herbal extracts from Czech and Slovak meadows, since we wanted to get closer to our Slovak customers, and it was conceived as a modern anti-pollution trend. 

Eau de toilette became an unexpected hit of this collection and it dominated top positions and influenced formation of the whole range in subsequent years.

In March 2022 another tragic event affected Europe - a war in Ukraine. 

We took advantage of the available premises in our warehouse and all common skills and built a hostel in record time, where we welcomed the first mothers with children only a few days after the outbreak of the conflict. 

The joy of helping others, which we managed to provide so quickly due to the joint work, was immense. 

Herbal salts were available in our shops for a long time, however, in 2022 we launched a pilot project of PACKAGE FREE sale of other products in 10 brick-and-mortar shops. 

After one year and half of testing we assessed the project as ineffective with regard to little interest of the customers and terminated it. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely contributed to limited interest in package-free shopping.

This year we won another KPMG award for customer experience and our six cosmetic products reached the first places in the popular Cosmetic Stars survey.

We have been cooperating with one of the most famous influencers in the Czech Republic - Shopaholic Nicol since 2021. 

In 2023 we presented our first common limited Christmas collection - Vanilla Crescent Cookies and were happy for the great success. 

The year 2023 was particularly rich in new collections: we launched a special collection for our tourist shops: PRAGUE Memories, presented refits of the popular Rose and Apricot collections and launched 26^th limited collection of Forest Fruit in September

The year 2024 is a big challenge for us. After many years of searching, we managed to buy a beautiful production area in Modletice and in spring, after several months of construction and technical works, we relocated the entire production, development centre as well as laboratories from Čakovice. 

A new big chapter is beginning. After many years we have extended premises and new technologies and are curious about what we will come up in future.

This year we are launching also a new online store (where you are just finishing reading our story) with a cash register system, which was preceded by several months of intensive preparations. 

There is never a dull moment! We enjoy it and look forward to everything that will come...