It’s National Smartie’s Day, honoring the birthday of company Founder and Smarties creator Edward Dee. He immigrated to the U.S. from London in 1949, where his family had made candy for two generations. He began making rolls of candy in a rented factory in Bloomfield, NJ. He called his candy “Smarties” to encourage people to pursue an education.
He moved the American operations to its current location in Union Township, NJ in 1967. He first established a factory in Toronto in 1963. In Canada, the candy is called Rockets to avoid confusion with Nestle’s candy-coated chocolate Smarties.
The Smarties Candy Company has 2 factors, one in Union Township, NJ, and another in Newmarket, Ontario Canada. The factories run 24 hours a day 5 days a week, producing around 70,000 pounds of candy a day. Every year, over 2.5 billion rolls of Smarties are produced. Each roll of Smarties is 25 calories and come with an assortment of 6 flavors: orange cream (white), pineapple (yellow), cherry (pink), strawberry (green), grape (purple), and orange (…orange).
All Smarties products are peanut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan. Founder Edward Dee died in 2019 at the age of 95, and today the company is run by his 3 granddaughters. Smarties Candy Company is one of the few remaining family-owned mass-production candy companies in the U.S.
Learn more here.