Smarties Candy Company celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2019, making it one of the
longest-running family-run candy companies still making the same product.
We're taking a deep look into those multi-colored candy tablets to find out more.
This is the untold truth of Smarties candies.
The story of the iconic Smarties brand goes back decades to when Edward Dee moved with
his family from England to New Jersey just a few years after World War II, bringing a
revolutionary candy idea with him.
Dee was already a third-generation candy maker in England.
In 1949, the same year he arrived in America, Dee founded his own candy company in the United
States.
Naming it Ce De Candy Inc., they soon began making the Smarties candy we all know and
love today.
According to Smarties, Dee opened the first factory in a rented building in Bloomfield,
New Jersey.
He moved it to Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1959, and then moved the candy making operation
to Union, New Jersey in 1967, where it has resided for decades.
The company was producing Smarties the entire time, and in 2011 it was renamed the Smarties
Candy Company, as it's known today.
Head to a local grocery store or drug store in the United States, and it's pretty easy
to spot that iconic clear label with red print that says "Smarties."
But you won't get quite the same thing if you're looking for the candy in Canada.
Upon first glance, the labels look identical, but if you look a bit closer, you'll notice
a difference in names.
They're not Smarties at all, but they are the same candy.
In Canada, Smarties are known as Rockets.
Ce De Candy Company established production in Canada in 1963.
They were making the same candy known to people in the United States as Smarties, but calling
them the same name would have caused confusion among the Canadian candy industry.
Nestle had been producing a candy-coated chocolate treat called Smarties since 1937, which were
available in Canada, but not The United States.
So, Ce De’s Smarties needed a different name for the Canadian market.
If you've taken a stroll through the candy aisle, then you've almost certainly seen Smarties
candies, and that can probably be said for millions of other people in North America.
As of 2019, Smarties Candy Company was producing over two billion Smarties rolls every year,
according to CNBC.
That adds up to around 30 billion tiny Smarties tablets.
And to keep up with that impressive production number, the equipment making Smarties needs
to operate 24 hours a day for five days a week between two factories.
According to Smarties Candy Company Co-president Liz Dee, when the machines are running, the
factories are producing 1,000 tablets per minute.
No wonder the candy is everywhere.
Halloween is a holiday dedicated to the ringing of doorbells and the collection of candy,
and trick or treating is a huge tradition in many households.
To be prepared for all of those ghouls and goblins showing up at their doors, Americans
buy a lot of candy, close to 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween each year.
That adds up to $2.75 billion spent on Halloween candy annually, and Smarties Candy Company
has certainly been influenced by those numbers over the years.
According to Inc., the candy company's orders from retailers planning to stock Smarties
for the holiday come in as early as November.
Candy making for those orders is underway throughout the spring and summer, which means
preparing for Halloween is basically a year-round thing.
Making sure their shipments are out on time for the big holiday results in a bit of a
lull around Halloween, so much so that Smarties actually ends its fiscal year on Halloween.
Since Edward Dee brought his family to the United States and started Smarties Candy Company,
the company has been a family business.
After Edward, his two sons Michael and Jonathan took over the family business.
Then Dee's three granddaughters, all in their 30s as of 2019, took over as co-presidents.
The trio of two sisters and one cousin had been on different career paths, but they officially
made their way back to the company in 2017.
Sarah Dee, Liz Dee, and Jessica Sawyer grew up in the Smarties factory, and they had all
spent time there as children watching their grandfather and fathers build the candy company.
"I spent some time out in the factory when I first started.
So I drove a forklift which was really fun."
And as the company has stayed in the family for three generations now, the three women
absolutely intend to give the company to their children one day.
Despite all of the additives found in other candy options, the ingredients list for Smarties
is surprisingly pretty short..
To create Smarties, dextrose is combined with citric acid, calcium stearate and natural
and artificial flavors and colors.
Each roll of Smarties features six different flavors and corresponding colors including
pineapple, orange, strawberry, grape, cherry, and orange cream.
And with their minimal list of ingredients, Smarties can boast that they only have 25
calories per roll.
When you think about a hard, pastel-colored candy like Smarties you might assume there
must be some sort of liquid incorporated into the process to form something like a dough.
Sweethearts Conversation Hearts for example, which are similar in texture, use liquid in
their mixture before the candy is pressed into shape and dried.
Smarties, on the other hand, are made with only dry ingredients.
Smarties combines its five ingredients, producing a dry mixture that's primed and ready for
pressing.
Each of the ingredients has to be ground perfectly, factoring in things like humidity and temperature.
If the ingredients weren't prepared perfectly, the candy may not be strong enough to withstand
all the jostling that comes with their production process.
Passing through machine after machine, after all, can take a lot out of a tiny piece of
candy.
The ingredients are combined and then they are all compressed by a punch and die machine
into the shapes we all have come to recognize.
Each of the six flavors are made individually with their separate coloring and flavoring,
and once compressed they're put into buckets.
All of the buckets are eventually combined to mix the colors, before they head to different
machines for packaging.
A lot of companies are making changes these days to make room for gluten-free and vegan
customers to buy their products.
But Smarties didn't have to change their recipe to do that.
When it comes to gluten-free candy, each option needs to be free of grains like wheat, rye,
and barley.
Many of the major candy options fall into that category, including Hershey's Milk Chocolate
Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Laffy Taffy, and Tootsie Rolls.
But many of those options can't claim to also be vegan.
With the small ingredients list that makes up Smarties, there's really not a whole lot
to them, and that works in their favor.
According to Smarties, all of their products are indeed vegetarian and vegan, as well as
gluten-free.
There's even a product code on their packages to assure those with Celiac disease that their
products were made in a gluten-free facility, making them safe for consumption.
In addition, the company boasts that its products are also peanut and tree nut-free, with measures
to ensure that they are manufactured in a peanut-free facility as well.
Since we spend countless hours devoting our time to our jobs, it's important to love where
you work.
And certainly, there must be some sweet perks to working for such a long-running candy company,
right?
You bet.
Smarties Candy Company employs approximately 100 people, and their Rockets factory in Canada
employs about the same number.
And as the company aims to keep the feeling of the family business intact, they extend
that family vibe to their employees.
"It has to be the bottom line, because we all care about this business, but at the end
of the day we all love each other."
The company prides itself on making flexible schedules a priority, keeping what co-president
Sarah Dee called "family-friendly hours."
And although that's a great goal for a large candy company, there's something even sweeter
the employees get.
After a long year of prepping for Halloween candy sales, employees are each gifted 30
pounds of Smarties to help celebrate the holiday at parties with family and friends, or to
give out to the trick or treaters visiting their house.
In addition, a company luncheon is hosted right around Halloween, celebrating the year
they've had.
Talk about a sweet way to celebrate those who have worked hard in the factory, producing
candy all year long.
Establishing a major candy company is no small feat.
But continuing on that legacy and keeping it all in the family is an even larger accomplishment.
According to PR Newswire, as of 2018, only 19 percent of the 28.8 million small businesses
in the United States were actually family-owned.
Furthermore, only 30 percent of family businesses can say they successfully survived the ownership
transition from the first generation to the second generation, and only 12 percent survive
from the second to the third.
"We're third generation Smarties-ers."
But Smarties Candy Company, now successfully transitioned to its third-generation of ownership,
can't say that those statistics affected them.
And while that's an impressive accomplishment for any type of business, keeping the family
ties going strong for so long is even more impressive in the world of candy.
According to CNBC, 65 percent of the U.S. candy market is made up of four public businesses,
with Mars and Hershey holding the largest market share as of 2020.
Smarties has beaten the odds, with the three relatives at the helm of the company now.
And since they're all devoted to passing the company to their own kids, chances are it
will stay in the family for years to come.
It's tricky for long-standing companies in the millennial age.
While generations of consumers remember their candies for their recognizable wrappers, sometimes
it's necessary to try to switch things up a bit.
Still, weighing nostalgia against innovation can be challenging.
To that end, the trio of Dee co-presidents have worked to make Smarties more present
in the ever-changing world of social media.
They're regularly posting bright and colorful photos of their candies in different situations
and showing off giant, and quite impressive, bins full of candy.
But upping their social media game wasn't the only change the co-presidents have made.
According to CNN, they devoted efforts to making sure they had a faster candy press
and quicker wrapping machine, allowing the company to produce more Smarties rolls per
minute.
But the changes still don't stop there since the company switched hands.
The Dees decided it was time for an aesthetic change for its 70th year in business, switching
up the logo to something that was a bit brighter while still keeping the same nostalgic and
recognizable look consumers have come to love.
The majority of consumers saw that new logo debut among Halloween 2019's candy supply.
Those cute little candy tablets are certainly what everyone thinks of when they hear Smarties
in the U.S. or Rockets in Canada, and they have been Smarties Candy Company's best selling
product since the very beginning.
But the company started branching out to offer other similar products as well, diversifying
their offerings.
It's important to keep things fresh so you can stay relevant, right?
When Edward Dee's sons, Michael Dee and Jonathan Dee, took on leadership positions within the
family candy company, they debuted a few new product lines along the way.
During that time, X-treme Sour Smarties came along, in addition to Oversized Smarties and
the ever-popular Candy Necklace.
New product launches don't always work, but Smarties has added a few winners over the
years that have hung around.
The Giant Smarties are simply a jumbo version of the original Smarties, wrapped in a larger
roll, and additional flavors of Smarties are now offered including a tropical version.
Smarties also produces Smarties lollipops in a variety of flavors, and Smarties Candy
Money, with imprints of dollar figures on each candy coin.
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