La Perle des Dieux

The cannery opened in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Vendée in 1887 under two brand names, La Perle des Océans and Les Dieux. The Gendreau family bought it in 1906 and have run it across four generations since. The current brand name, La Perle des Dieux, was created in 2005 by merging the two originals. Saint-Gilles is the largest sardine fishing port on the French Atlantic coast, and the town's sardines were the first wild fish in France to receive the Red Label quality designation, in 2000.