The European Candy Kettle Club has named experienced regional chocolatier Luigi Zàini, as the recipient of the its latest annual industry accolade, reports Neill Barston.

Notably, the organisation held its latest ceremony on 9 September, at Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan, Italy, with the longstanding chocolatier recognised for his global work within the sector.

Speaking to the organisers of the event, Zàini, who heads Zaini Spa, reflected on what has given the business its longevity and success.

He said: “I believe the key factors can be summariwed as follows – Sticking to the family traditions and values while accepting the new inputs and ideas introduced by the external managers we hired. In addition, it’s also a case of
always investing in state of the art technology, and diversifying our product portfolio to be suited for both national and international markets.”

The chocolatier continued: “Our product portfolio covers the needs of different ages of consumers and different consumption occasions. To summerise the most important I can mention –  our range of cooking chocolate products named Emilia which is the leading brand in Italy in its category, our range of pralines where our boules and our cherry liquors stand out, as well as our kids line with the famous chocolate surprise eggs and the gifting range,” he added, noting that he was also proud of its latest 2026 launches, which have been concentrated on a new line of bite size products featuring topical Italian inclusions like hazelnuts and coffee and in a very successful line of frieze dried fruit covered with chocolate.