Here is how I solved this:
Created an array in the while loop and put each item in it:
while( $manufacturer2 = xtc_db_fetch_array($manufacturer_query2,true) ){
$os[] = $manufacturer2['manufacturers_name'] = '<a class="PI_Manufacturer" style="color: #990033" href="' . xtc_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT, xtc_manufacturer_link($manufacturer2['manufacturers_id'],$manufacturer2['manufacturers_name'])) . '">' . $manufacturer2['manufacturers_name'] . '</a><text class="PI_Manufacturer">;</text> ';
$info_smarty->assign('ALINK',$os);
}
I also assigne the array to a variable at the end and called it using a foreach loop in the template:
{foreach item=authors from=$ALINK}
{$authors}
{/foreach}