Some bits of information are hard to pull out of Magento’s admin interface. I made a list of all the manufacturers I wanted to put in my Magento install. This shows under Catalog/Attributes/Manage Attributes. Typically you select the Manufacturer attribute, and click on Manage Label/Options. This gives you the whole list of manufactures, but you cannot export it from this screen or through Magento’s export profile interface.
The database is the best way to pull a list of manufacturers from Magento. Connect using Sequel Pro or some other db tool, and find the following table:
eav_attribute_option_value
Select that table and export it as a csv. Then open it up and you’ll find labels for your Manufacturer’s and other options as well. Just cut out the stuff you don’t need and you’re done.