About Us - Conservas Hoya

Conservas Hoya

Around the world in 80 years.

It was in 1940 when our grandparents, Tomás Hoya and Dionisia Palacio, built the first of four factories in the history of our company. We are from Santoña, the world capital of the canning industry, We thrive from the resources of our bountiful Cantabrian sea.

Our history is based on four pillars: quality, responsibility, hard work and service. Although our location and surrounding environment is the fifth pillar that places us, as one of the most prestigious manufacturers of canned food.

From Santoña, cradle of the anchovy.

It all began as all great stories do, unexpectedly. Our grandfather Tomás, from a humble family and the oldest of many brothers, was forced to work from a very young age.

He started as a Shop-assistant in a grocer’s store, then he Joined the crew of a ship on the route from Spain to Cuba as an assistant cook, called “marmiton”. He was promoted to head cook for his honesty and worth. He saved up, left the ship and began a different career as a hotelier when he acquired the bar in the Port of Santoña.

It was a springboard and a school, where he began to associate with the seafarers and canners, who became his teachers in the art of salting anchovies and canning fish.

Our grandmother Nisia was from a wealthier family than Tomás, but with equal dedication to work and love for progress.

She is remembered with great affection and admiration especially for her while working in the restaurant run by her parents, and for being the inspiring cornerstone on which Tomás relied to assert his innate business sense.

Family and business, business and family.

Tomás and Nisia had five sons and a daughter, who grew up on the upper floor of the factory where the family home was located. They would all live and breath the profession even in the most difficult moments.

Neither the harshness of the Spanish post-war period, or the fire in a factory, nor the closures in the Cantabrian anchovy fishing grounds put a stop to the progress of our family business thanks to this legacy, in 80 years, we have conquered the markets of Spain and the world. Always dedicated to provide the highest quality in the manufacturing of our products.

The grandchildren of Tomás and Nisia continue today in the footsteps of this great inheritance, that courageous spirit that is not found in formulas or balance sheets: the pride of the past and the commitment to continue it in order to improve ourselves day by day in quality, responsibility, work and service.