The Bourriquen-Quénerdu canning factory was founded in 1881 on the estuary side. Originally from Pont-l’Abbé and based in Douarnenez, Eugène Bourriquen-Quénerdu, aged 63 at the time, was married to the daughter of a sardine presser from the Penn Sardin neighbourhood. This was the third fryery on Île-Tudy after Martin (1857), later renamed Philippe and Canaud, and Tinnier (1866), which closed its doors before the end of the century. Both were located in the historic heart of Île-Tudy.
After the death of Bourriquen-Quénerdu in 1888, the factory was taken over in 1896 by René Béziers, a native of the Loire-Atlantique region who had worked as a canner in Douarnenez and Saint-Guénolé. The Île-Tudy factory produced canned sardines and tuna. In 1904, Béziers opened a fourth cannery on the route de Plonéour in Pont-l’Abbé, but he closed the Île-Tudy factory in 1911.
In 1920, after the departure of the American sailors from the seaplane base, the buildings that had been vacated were taken over by Les conserveries Lecointre, which had its head office in Vincennes and other factories in Guilvinec and Noirmoutier. The Île-Tudy factory specialised in sardines, tuna and meat. On August 4, 1926, the Lecointre sardine workers joined the strike movement launched in the Bigouden region by the Lesconil workers to obtain a pay rise and better working conditions. The Lecointre cannery closed its doors in 1932, marking the end of the building’s industrial activity.
Meanwhile, the Divanach cannery on Place des Rougets had started up in 1920. It closed its doors in 1958, followed by Philippe and Canaud four years later. It was the end of the canning adventure on Île-Tudy – which had nevertheless lasted more than a century.
A forthcoming exhibition will retrace the intense life of Île-Tudy around fishing and canning.
