Candy Industry Magazine’s Kettle Awards Committee has announced the list of nominees for the industry’s most prestigious award. The nominees, who were selected based on their accomplishments, activities and contributions to the confectionery industry in 2017 include:

• Mitchell Goetze, ceo of Goetze’s Candy Co., Baltimore
• Craig Leva, president and  owner of Arway Confectioners/Long Grove Confectionery, Chicagoland
• Chris Reid, president and ceo of Piedmont Candy Co., Lexington, N.C.
• Jean Thompson, president and ceo of Seattle Chocolate Co., Seattle

Each of the nominees for this illustrious award were nominated as determined by the criteria set up for the Kettle Award in 1945. The criteria require superior achievement in the following areas: sales and marketing; education and personnel training; energy and environmental contributions; quality advancement; production and plant improvement; and research and product development.

Candy Industry’s founder and publisher, Don Gussow, established the Kettle Award in 1946. As he explained to readers then, the Kettle Award was meant as “recognition of the contribution for ‘great or good’ of the industry, not only on the part of the person selected for the distinction, but of every member of the confectionery field who has devoted himself in whatever measure to make the business of candy making and selling a more profitable and happier one.”

The chairman and members of the Kettle Committee, which consists of representatives from leading suppliers to the industry, will present the 73nd Kettle Awards at a gala reception on May 22, 2018, during the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago. The event will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the main dining room of the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.

All individuals working in or with the confectionery industry are welcomed to attend. For more information on each nominee, visit www.kettleawards.com.