Just a quick and dirty script, but this should be what you are looking for…
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);    
ini_set('display_errors', 1); 
/*
 * Boostrap Magento
 */
$mageFilename="../app/Mage.php";
require_once $mageFilename;        
Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true);     
umask(0);
$mageRunCode="";
$mageRunType="store";
Mage::init($mageRunCode, $mageRunType);
/*
 * Set up required data
 */
$newManufacturers = file('manufacturers.txt', FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES | FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);
$newManufacturers = array_unique($newManufacturers);
$attribute = Mage::getModel('eav/entity_attribute')
                ->loadByCode('catalog_product', 'manufacturer');
$valuesCollection = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute_option_collection')
            ->setAttributeFilter($attribute->getData('attribute_id'))
            ->setStoreFilter(0, false)
            ->getColumnValues('value');
$installer = new Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup('core_setup'); 
/*
 * Add new attributes
 */
$addedManufacturers      = array();
$skippedManufacturers    = array();
$i = count($valuesCollection);
foreach($newManufacturers as $manufacturer) {
    // If the value already exists then skip to next  
    if (in_array($manufacturer, $valuesCollection)) {
        $skippedManufacturers[] = $manufacturer;
        continue;
    }
    //If we have reached here then lets add the new attribute option
    $newOption = array();
    $newOption['attribute_id'] = $attribute->getData('attribute_id');
    $newOption['value']['option_'.++$i][0] = $manufacturer;
    $installer->addAttributeOption($newOption);
    $optionValue = Mage::getResourceModel('eav/entity_attribute_option_collection')
            ->setAttributeFilter($attribute->getId())
            ->setStoreFilter(0, false)
            ->addFilter('value_id', $installer->getConnection()->lastInsertId())   
            ->getColumnValues('option_id');
    $addedManufacturers[] = $optionValue[0];
}
if (count($addedManufacturers)) {
    echo "<h2>Manufacturers Added</h2><ul>";
    foreach($addedManufacturers as $added) {
        echo "<li>" . $added . "</li>";
    }
    echo "</ul>";
}
if (count($skippedManufacturers)) {
    echo "<h2>Manufacturers Skipped</h2><ul>";
    foreach($skippedManufacturers as $skipped) {
        echo "<li>" . $skipped . "</li>";
    }
    echo "</ul>";
}
6
solved Magento Programming: Importing manufacturers while checking for existing duplicates and get manu. ID