Antonio Alonso Santodomingo was born in Bayona, Galicia in 1844, emigrated to Havana before turning 18, and spent nearly two decades in the Cuban textile trade before returning to found his own cannery in Vigo in 1873. During World War One the family became one of the leading suppliers of tinned goods to armies on multiple sides of the conflict, establishing a branch in Bordeaux in the process. Now in its fifth generation, operating from Bueu, Pontevedra, the oldest active cannery in Spain produces more than 14 million cans of DOP Mejillón de Galicia mussels annually.