El Corte Inglés: Difference between revisions
Spanish department store group
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| Type | Sociedad Anónima |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | (28 June 1940) in Madrid, Spain |
| Founder | Ramón Areces César Rodríguez |
| Headquarters |
Madrid , Spain |
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Number of locations |
83 (2023) |
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Area served |
Spain and Portugal USA, UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries (online only) |
|
Key people |
Victor del Pozo (chairman) Marta Álvarez Guil (President) |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, accessories, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares |
| Revenue |  €15.783 billion (2018)[1] |
| €258 million (2018)[1] |
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Number of employees |
90,004 (2018)[1] |
| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | elcorteingles.com (International) |
El Corte Inglés S.A. (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈkoɾte jŋˈɡles]),[a] headquartered in Madrid,[2] is the biggest department store group in Europe and ranks third worldwide.[3][4] Its primary source of sales is from department stores, followed by internet sales. It is a family business, with most stock being held by relatives of the deceased businessmen Ramon Areces Rodriguez and César Rodríguez González (1882-1966), and the Ramon Areces foundation.[5]
El Corte Inglés is Spain’s and Portugal’s only remaining department store chain. El Corte Inglés has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores since 1998.[6][7] Stores tend to be very large in size and offer a wide range of products: stores may sell music, movies, portable and household electronics, furniture, hardware, books, clothes, groceries, gourmet food, cars and real estate.
History[edit]
In 1934, the founders Ramón Areces Rodriguez and Cesar Rodriguez Gonzalez bought a tailor’s shop (which had opened in 1890) located on one of Madrid‘s most central streets, calle Preciados, at the corner of calle Carmen and calle Rompelanzas, and made it into a limited company.
The property where the shop was located had been owned by Julián Gordo Centenera since 1930.[8] The prime location of the property soon attracted the attention of an Asturian businessman named Pepin Fernandez who was looking to expand a business called Sederias Carretas which he had started in 1934 with a capital contribution from his cousin Cesar Rodriguez Gonzales. His plan was to purchase all of the properties on the block to construct a new building to house his business, a vision which was later realized in the form of Galerias Preciados.[9]
Around 1920, aged 15, Areces had gone to Havana, Cuba, and worked at the famous retail chain Almacenes El Encanto, where he learned the basics of department store business. Cesar Rodriguez had asked Pepin Fernandez to hire his nephew Ramon Areces in Sederias Carretas shortly after his return from Cuba. Pepin refused, so Cesar requested that he at least allow Ramon to operate El Corte Ingles while plans to acquire the block and construct the new building were finalized. Pepin, who had also learned the department store business at Almacenes El Encanto, accepted the request, and transferred ownership of El Corte Ingles to Cesar on 23 December 1935, and acquired the property where it was located on behalf of Sederias Carretas soon after. Once Cesar took ownership of El Corte Ingles, he designated Ramon Areces as manager, a position which he held until his death, including during the Spanish civil war.
When the war ended in 1939, El Corte Ingles relocated to calle Preciados, on the corner of calle Tetuan, near the location of Almacenes el Aguila, to make way for the new Galerias Preciados building.
After the move in 1940, Areces turned the tailor’s shop into a sociedad limitada, registering with 1 million pesetas of capital, and shares divided equally between Cesar Rodriguez, who became the first president of El Corte Ingles S.L., and Ramon Areces, whose share of the capital contribution came from a loan facilitated by his uncle. As the business expanded, Cesar Rodriguez eventually became the majority shareholder, although Areces remained in charge of strategic decisions and the day-to-day operations of the business.
Between 1945 and 1946, El Corte Ingles acquired its new building and expanded to encompass 2000 square meters of retail space on 5 floors, and shifted to a department store organizational style similar to that of Galerias Preciados, which had been operational since 1943. The company saw continuous growth until 1952, when it converted its legal structure from a sociedad limitada to a sociedad anónima in which Cesar Rodriguez remained president and majority shareholder, a position which he held until his death in 1966. After this, Ramon Areces, who until then had been managing director, became the president and largest shareholder.
The competition between El Corte Ingles and Galerias Preciados in the 1950s and 60’s caused a revolution in Spanish retail distribution. Seasonal discounts, organized ad campaigns, air conditioned stores, massive use of publicity, large…