[buccaneer81]

Rowntrees of York, England, have been making "Chocolate Beans" since at least 1882. The product was renamed "Smarties Chocolate Beans" in 1937.[2] Rowntrees was forced to drop the words "chocolate beans" in 1977 due to trading standards requirements (the use of the word "beans" was felt to be misleading) so adopted the "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell". Later, the sweet was rebranded as "Smarties".

Smarties are no longer manufactured in York; production has now moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made. Outside Europe, Nestlé's largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestlé has been manufacturing products since 1918.

[Squawk 8888]

You gave interesting info about what happened, but here in Canada I know from personal experience that at least since the 1960s they were marketed as “Smarties” with no other descriptors.

[thecodont]

M & M Mars makes "Minstrels" sold in the UK.