The European Candy Kettle Club (ECKC), founded in 1973 by the French chocolatier Guy Urbain to support the development of European sweets and confectionery innovation, awarded Oliver Schindler, owner and managing director of the company Sweet Tec, the 2020 winner of the ECKC Award.
Consisting of 30 machinery and ingredient suppliers from different European countries, the club awards the prestigious accolade to a company in Europe every year at the ISM sweets and snacks fair in Cologne.
A son of a confectioner, Schindler was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, and has been owner and managing director of Toffee Tec in Boizenburg, in Northern Germany since 2003 and also Sweet Tec since 2004.
Private label projects
As a full service manufacturer, Sweet Tec develops private label projects for retail and industrial customers in the hard and soft caramel segments, and since 2016 also fruit gums. The company also develops product and packaging concepts, contract manufacturing as well as the development of marketing concepts.
With over 400 employees Sweet Tec produces high quality sweets in one of the most modern confectionery production facilities in Europe and exports to over 40 countries, the ECKC acknowledged.
To win the award the companies should be outstanding in criteria such as product quality, development in production, research and technology, performance in sales and marketing as well as international cooperation.
The long list of winners since 1973 includes some of the most important names in the European sweets and confectionery industry such as Ferrero/Italy, Lindt & Sprüngli/Switzerland, Fazer/Finland, Katjes/Germany, Loacker/Italy, Krupskaya/Russia, Valor/Spain, Colian/Poland and Valrhona/France and Zotter/Austria.
