Max Brenner

1996–2001: An emerging company

The company was founded in 1996 in Ra'anana, Israel, by Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner (Hebrew: עודד ברנר) who combined their names. The business began as a small shop selling handmade chocolates.

Working as an apprentice in Paris, Brenner met chocolatier Michel Chaudun and convinced the maestro to take him on. He spent the following six years learning the art of chocolate-making in Paris. Upon his return to Israel, he opened the first shop, with a workshop in the back, named "Handmade Chocolate by Max Brenner", in Ra’anana. By 1999, Fichtman and Brenner had opened ten chocolate shops.

A chance meeting with an Israeli entrepreneur in 1999 sparked the idea of expanding his business, and the first of the Max Brenner-branded cafes opened in Australia, in Sydney's hip suburb of Paddington, in 2000. This newly opened “Max Brenner Chocolate Bar” was to be the centre of Max Brenner's new chocolate culture, combining a chocolate bar and a chocolate shop.

2001–2017: The Strauss years

In 2001, the chain became part of the Strauss Group, Israel's second-largest food and beverage company. Max Brenner sourced raw materials for its products from a project in Tanzania, owned by Swiss chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut.

In the period from 2002 to 2005, Max Brenner opened locations in Israel, Singapore, and the Philippines, while continuing to open new locations in Australia. In 2006, Max Brenner opened their first chocolate bar in the United States in New York City.

In 2010, a new Max Brenner restaurant and chocolate store opened in the U.S. at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, followed by another store opening in Boston and Philadelphia during the next year, offering both sweet and savory menu options.

In 2013, the company unveiled a new strategy, under which it started to move away from full-service restaurants and adopted a fast-casual concept named a Chocolate Bar. The first of these opened in Bethesda, Maryland in June 2013, with three more opening in Tokyo, Japan, and Moscow, Russia via franchise agreements. The company opened its second US Chocolate Bar in Paramus, New Jersey in April 2014. In Australia, Max Brenner had expanded to 37 restaurants across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory.

Since 2017: Independent again

In May 2017, Strauss Group sold Max Brenner brand to Israeli franchisees Yaniv Shtanger and Dudu Vaknin for 18 million NIS (US$5 million).

Boycotts

The Strauss Group states on their website that they provide care packages to soldiers in the IDF's Golani Brigade, leading to activists targeting Max Brenner stores for boycotts Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

In 2011, pro-Palestinian activist group Students for Palestine organized a series of protests outside Max Brenner outlets in Australia. The protest in Melbourne led to 19 arrests.

The protests have drawn condemnation from then Foreign Minister of Australia (and former prime minister) Kevin Rudd, who remarked "I don't think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business." In September 2011, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission said that "the protesters had not broken federal competition law because the protests did not cause substantial loss or damage to the Max Brenner chocolate stores." Some pro-Palestinian organizations including Australians for Palestine have distanced themselves from the protests but have publicly defended the choice of Max Brenner as a boycott target. In October 2011, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia said that he is against the "full-scale" BDS campaign, and in particular expressed his anger over the occasionally violent protests at the Max Brenner stores, saying, "BDS is a non-violent process and I don't think it's the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place."

Protest organizers consistently denied that the protests were violent, and instead accused the police of acting with brutality.

Julia Gillard denounced the planned protest against the Max Brenner shop on the Kensington campus of University of New South Wales, accusing the organizers of engaging in an ugly attempt to spread anti-Semitism and Holocaust-denial. In a survey conducted by the university to ascertain which new stores students and faculty wanted on campus, a Max Brenner chocolate shop was the second most popular choice.

Max Brenner Australia spokespersons stated that the sole shareholders of the franchise operation in Australia are a young Australian couple who have no direct connection to the Strauss Group. The franchise employs over 1,100 Australian residents across four states.