FROM 1873

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Napoleon offered a reward to anyone who could provide him with a method for keeping food in good condition over long periods of time. It was Nicolás Appert who discovered that food could be preserved for a number of years by heating it in hermetically sealed containers. Thanks to this he was awarded the Benefactor of Humanity prize. Appertization marked the birth of industrial canning technology.

Preserves reached Spain in 1840 when a French sailboat was shipwrecked off Finisterre. Preserves were made in glass containers until the Englishman Peter Durand, began using tin cans, which gave the preserve greater resistance and protected it from the effects of light, thereby preventing the deterioration of the vitamin content.

 After returning to his birthplace, Antonio Alonso sets up his own company. In 1873 the well known Conservas Antonio Alonso was born, giving a strong boost to the local canning industry that existed at that time.

Antonio Alonso acquired two steam powered fishing boats, the San Antonio and the Santo Domingo, which were dedicated to fishing red sea bream, with the aim of transporting the fish by rail, for sale in Madrid. The surplus would be marinated and tinned at a plant in Guixar that was shared with numerous other local shipowners.

 Conservas Antonio Alonso had been set up as an export company, targeting the markets where preserves were most widely known at the time: France and Belgium. That is why their first brand, Palais d’Orient, was so well received at the Brussels International Fair in 1922. Also, in that same year, the Alonsos bought the salting factory in Pescadoira (Bueu).

 In September 1927, his majesty King Alfonso XIII visited the big factory in Vigo.

 Antonio was the one who remained most closely linked to the canning industry, thus it was his son, Guillermo Alonso Menéndez who took charge of the main factory they had at that time, in Setubal. In 1967, Conservas Antonio Alonso became a limited liability company and his grandson Guillermo Alonso Jaudenes became Managing Director of the company after securing a broad consensus among all the partners in the family firm.

 The headquarters in Vigo were situated on calle Zamora, they were later relocated to Ctra Vigo-Bayona 127, where the main warehouse was also placed. From that moment on, a new era of advancement and modernisation began, including the acquisition of ISO quality certifications, the development of advanced computer systems which were subsequently passed over to SAP, the entering of new international markets, the development of new products and so on.

Palacio de Oriente has the blue MSC label (Marine Stewardship Council) for its range of albacore and organic Cantabrian-sea anchovies. This certification attests the sustainable provenance of the natural resources used to manufacture our canned goods.

The processing and packaging of tuna species (albacore and yellowfin tuna) moves from the factory in Celeiro to the facilities in Bueu, equipped with the latest technology in the Galician cannery sector.

Since 2018, every mussel processed within the Palacio de Oriente facility has belonged to the DOP Mejillón de Galicia. This guarantees the provenance of the mollusks, always from floating nursery structures, called bateas, located in the Galician loughs. It also certifies that the DOP’s demanding quality standards are met.   

Conservas Antonio Alonso S.A. embarked on an ambitious challenge with the launch of the strategic plan for 2021-2024. This plan outlines the guidelines for the national and international expansion during that period, including the celebration, in 2023, of the 150th anniversary of the cannery’s founding.