NCA celebrates 250th anniversary of US with Sweet Land of Liberty campaign

A mood of cautious optimism prevailed for the final day of the 2026 State of the Industry Conference, as major challenges and opportunities were placed under the microscope, writes Neill Barston. 

The event convened this under a banner of celebration of the sector amid the 250th anniversary of US independence, with the region’s confectionery industry tracing its roots back to a few years prior to that momentous date with the first imports of cocoa to the region.

As part of the festivities, the National Confectioners Association has delivered an industry first in devising a theme for its campaign, “Sweet Land of Liberty” with a little help from some digital AI friends, which has set the tone for a series of activities throughout the year. 

While tests in the market have persisted in terms of ingredients prices, tariffs and regulatory environment in particular, there remained a note of optimism as it was revealed that the market continued in an upward trajectory of $55 billion overall sales, though chocolate revenues were down a little.

Despite that, the category remained the largest segment of the market, valued at just over $28billion for the year, while non-candy registered $22bn sales, and gum delivered $4bn within the category.

As the NCA noted, its dollar values have made a strong contribution to the nation’s economy and culture, with the organisation planning ‘merch’ and activities to be seen at this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo, as well as the subsequent National Candy month in June.

This will centre on its  “Random Acts of Sweetness” initiative  with bespoke campaign-branded merchandise, backed by a strong visual campaign to ensure the celebrations continue throughout the year. 

As for the final day of the conference, this began with a presentation from research organisation Circana’s Sally Lyons Wyatt, offered an extensive overview of the state of the region’s confectionery market.

Her engaging presentation covered a broad spread of topics, which took analysing the season nature of the industry and the opportunities that this continues to present. It also took a deep-dive into shopper behaviour, noting that bricks and mortar stores still account for more than 70% of consumer discovery of products, with online and social media channels including Tik-Tok occupying a fast-rising rival to conventional merchandising and promotions surrounding new lines.

Notably, there was an acknowledgement the AI is going to be playing an increasingly large part of product development within the industry, with many larger players in particular, already turning to the likes of Chat GPT to enhance research on favoured recipes, and trending ingredients in terms of devising their own confectionery and snacking lines.

The presentation also took pricing issues, packaging, as well as exploring the drivers of growth within the segment, which despite registering a further dip in chocolate, sales, the headline stats for the overall confectionery sector pointed to continued resilience within the industry.

Opening her presentation, Sally Lyons Wyatt (pictured) reflected that while times continued to present their pressures, she believed there were opportunities for the sector.

She said: “Innovation is important, and we’re going to move into how’s it showing up. It’s been busy year, and consumers are needing a break from their lives, which is what you heard yesterday.

“We’re all living it. It’s really difficult right now and challenging, but confections gives us that moment to just pause, and new innovation just adds excitement,” noting the need for driving the industry forward, with manufacturers and brand having to closely examine how the conduct their operations during 2026.

On a note of optimism, she explained there was plenty to look forward to, which was underlined by the overall performance of the sector.

She added: “Confections is now the number two department in stores today, so we kind of have a new universe now, and we have more coverage of all the places you can sell and use your branding.

“Being number Number two in store is down to the effort of this room with your core business, but also your innovation. But we have work to do. As the conference talked about already, there are different reasons why we innovate, and there’s different concepts that we use to innovate.

“One area is around new brands and new spaces, kind of expanding the category, or even maybe some creating some new category definitions. Another is about new sub brands and new spaces, so acquiring some new consumers through brand expansion, new brands or even acquisitions.”

• For a further, full review of the third day and full conference, see subsequent online and magazine coverage from Confectionery Production in the coming days and weeks prior to Sweets & Snacks Expo