Exclusive: Major insights set for World Confectionery Conference 2025

Insights have played a significant part in our World Confectionery conference editions over the past five years. Our 2025 iteration has sought to maintain that, as editor Neill Barston speaks to Tristan Hover, senior business analyst with Euromonitor, examining some of the tests and opportunities that his work has afforded

Delving deep into the confectionery world and its wider supply ecosystem to find out what makes it tick is something that Euromonitor’s Tristan Hover has found considerably fascinating in recent years.

“Since school I have always been most interested in maths, so I am a numbers guy,” he enthuses to our title, as he offers an insight into its own methodology in charting and tracking some of the biggest changes in our ever-evolving global sector.

He’ll be taking on the not inconsiderable task of offering an overview of the market for this year’s World Confectionery Conference, and what a time to be exploring an industry given the raft of challenges it is facing.

Registration for our event on 11 September is open at confectioneryconference.com, with participants from across the full spectrum of the industry expected at our established international event.

Clearly, the delivery of trends and analysis of the market remains of critical importance, and something we have sought to train a keen eye on both within the pages of our magazine, as well as our conference as it enters its fifth edition.

So, the chance to engage specialist research groups such as Euromonitor are not to be missed, as the level of data analysis, reflections and data crunching that goes into its work are quite exceptional.

As many industry observers have noted, 2025 has already felt like an especially momentous period, namely due to the introduction of major tariffs by the US, as well as the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine that have caused further uncertainties for many markets around the world.

Such unwelcome events have cast a shadow over a number of sectors, and the confectionery and snacks markets are no exception to this. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, sweets and snacks sales performance for many regions around the world in the past year have shown an upward trend.

Strong sector focus
For his part, Tristan is primarily responsible for analysing the latest trends and developments influencing the food and nutrition industries, with a focus on the Western European market. He contributes directly to the quality of Euromonitor’s global research, which has become some of the most respected in its field.

His analysis has appeared in business publications like Handelsblatt and Bloomberg and he has been a speaker at several renowned webinars and trade fairs such as ISM and Anuga.

He has completed an apprenticeship as an associate engineer as well as a degree in Business Psychology, focusing on understanding consumer behaviour, which are all highly valuable skillsets to have in his line of work.
Confectionery Production has had the chance to witness Tristan’s work in recent years, including at Caobisco’s 65th anniversary celebrations last year where he offered an overview of chocolate markets in an engaging and thoughtful style that shed a light on some of the industry’s core sub-trends.

These can also prove highly illuminating in terms of gaining an understanding of how manufacturers often approach their product development and delivery.
Speaking on his involvement with this year’s conference, which is being held at the Brussels Marriott Hotel next month, he believed there will be plenty of key trends to reflect upon.

“I’m very happy to be joining the conference. Brussels and Belgium are very known for chocolate, and I am looking forward to it as having been to a few events before, they offer the chance to get to know people and to gain an opinion and mood within a certain industry.

“This can include everything from whether they are feeling optimistic or not, or what their current challenges might be. So it offer a chance to look a little ‘behind the curtain, and some of the people you see, you’ve maybe seen many times at events across Europe, so I think it’s great to have these opportunities,” explains Tristan on anticipating being part of our event this year, which features keynotes from the likes of Ferrero, Caobisco trade association, Luker Chocolate, and fellow insights group, Mintel, into its eclectic mix next month.

As we have reported this year, there have been many challenges amid the global market that have kept market researchers working in overdrive to keep up, but with Euromonitor’s extensive expertise in the food and drink market as a whole, including confectionery, it has kept a strong handle on the sector.
Tristan continued: “On the positive side, there’s now more and more data that’s available, which in some ways you might imagine that would make things easier. But there is actually such an overload of data that you have to clear, which can be a challenge.

“And the other aspect in the past few years, due to the uncertainties that are out there in the market, this has made forecasting another real challenge, though it’s interesting and has given opportunities to some people as well in trying to be on point with all that information and data year-on-year,” noting that the last twelve months alone has felt especially action-packed in terms of global activity and events.

Related to this, one of the most startling developments of the past two years has been the emergence of artificial intelligence-based platforms such as Chat GPT, which has enabled lightning fast access to information on a scale never before seen.

The potential impact of such tools on all spheres of industry is something that Tristan is very much aware of, and indeed his organisation has been harnessing its power, particularly in terms of raw data gathering.

“We’ve already used AI for tasks such as checking qualitative data in trade press and other areas, but we also want to use AI more within the company to enable us to adapt to certain changes within an industry. I think every analyst knowns that AI will in fact change job description – it’s kind of like having a very talented and fast assistant, but you have to be careful that it doesn’t get better than you by creating new information,” adds Tristan of the key tech innovation.

Such systems, as striking as they are, can only ever be as strong as the available data that exists out there, so there’s a wider hope that such digital analysis can enhance rather than replace traditional research methods.
With our conference just around the corner, Tristan will be keenly anticipating the chance to shed some light on some of the hottest trends that are making an impact around the world this year.