The National Confectioners Association's State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) continued today with its first full day of panels. The conference officially started yesterday, at the JW Marriott resort in Aventura, Florida, but most of those events were not open to the media, except for the awards ceremony the previous night.

The first panel of the day, "State of the Industry: Fun and YOU-nique" was presented by John Downs, NCA's president and CEO, and took a general look at the state of the confectionery industry, including consumer trends and what could be upcoming in the industry's future. 

"People light up when they talk about their favorite treats—we know that. They talk about the holidays, family gatherings with our products, and they say that life is better with chocolate and candy. They enjoy chocolate and candy two to three times a week, keeping our treats a special part of their lives," he said. 

After Downs' keynote, he held a fireside chat with political columnist George Will, moderated by Mark Jeffries (SOTIC emcee), about the impact of the U.S. sugar program. In addition, NCA presented the Advocate of the Year Award to Michael Rosenberg, president and CEO, PIM Brands. 

At 10:30 am, NCA's Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of Operations Elise Fennig debuted its State of Treating 2024 report, which took a look at the confectionery industry's statistics over the past year. 

The report revealed that confectionery sales hit $48 billion in 2023, a number largely driven by inflation. It projects that U.S. confectionery sales will reach $61 billion by 2028. In addition, more than 98% of American consumers purchased chocolate, candy, gum, and mints in 2023.

After lunch, attendees were invited to "choose their own adventure," with three different panel choices: "Retail Channel Outlook: Grocery," "Getting to Know Seasonal Chocolate & Candy Consumers," or "Leading Healthy Workplace Cultures (No Matter What Your Role!)."

The Retail Channel Outlook: Grocery panel featured John Evans, director of center store, Weis Markets; Robin Gutridge, senior category manager of candy and general merchandise, Raley's; Yana Hansen, national director, candy, Albertsons; and was moderated by Dan Salder, principal and team lead, confections, Circana.

Hansen revealed that Albertsons was one of the first stores to carry MrBeast's Feastables line of chocolate and that consumers flocked to the store for it—even some consumers who usually didn't shop at Albertsons for confectionery items.

"85% of the consumers that purchased the MrBeast bars were new to confectionery at Albertsons. And it relates to the category as a whole—how can we capture the Gen Z market and bring them to our stores?" she said. 

The panel also discussed how to capture impulse buyers' interests, and the "COVID consumer," aka consumers who might be buying candy online now.

The last panel of the day focuses on AI, including "The Transformative Power of AI for Business," given by Paul Tepfenhart, global director of retail and consumer solutions, Google Cloud, and "The Transformative Power of AI for You!" presented by Conor Grennan, dean of MBA students at NYU Stern and head of GenerativeAI@Stern.

The panel addressed how retailers and brands can use AI, and how businesses can use ChatGPT, in particular, to increase productivity and outputs.

Throughout all the panels today, attendees enjoyed glimpses of "The Sweet Life," NCA's streaming series, including behind-the-scenes looks at companies like Spangler Candy (whose leaders have won multiple Kettle Awards, American Licorice Company, and others.

SOTIC will continue March 12 with a full day of panels, including "Sweets & Treats—Feeling the Heat" by Sally Lyons Wyatt, Circana.

Related: NCA State of Treating report: sales of chocolate, candy reach all-time high of $48 billion in 2023