El Corte Inglés is one of the most important companies in Spain. In addition to the department stores, the company has other business units. It also offers insurance and tourist trips, among other things. After a difficult time, due to corona, the company has to adjust its strategy.
El Corte Inglés is also strong in the supermarket segment, including the Supercor stores. These are among the favourite supermarkets of the Spaniards, according to a survey by the Spanish consumer organisation OCU.
El Corte Inglés announces further closures Supercor, the supermarket franchise of El Corte Inglés, will have fewer branches in different parts of the country. This process is part of an agreement signed in September last year. In addition, the department store sold 46 supermarkets, representing 25% of the total, to the French company Carrefour. The amount involved was approximately €60 million. The company led by Marta Álvarez reaffirms its focus on larger supermarket formats, which are more in line with the current business strategy.
What is the new strategy?
The company is adjusting its strategy to reduce the number of brick-and-mortar stores. This mainly concerns rental properties, shops with a limited range of products and which are performing poorly economically and are no longer profitable. To compensate for the decline in the number of stores, El Corte Inglés has expanded its online business, in an effort to stabilise its financial situation.
This focus on closing certain stores is part of a strategic plan that was implemented two years ago. The aim of the reorganisation process is to optimise the distribution network and to put the figures in order. They suffered greatly in 2020 due to the corona pandemic. In that year, the company suffered a record loss of €2.945 billion and revenues fell by almost a third, to a total of €10.432 euros.
What will happen to the affected stores and employees?
The Supercor stores that are closing are located in Madrid, Catalonia, Andalucia and Valencia. Carrefour announced that the plan is to convert these stores into one of several store formats: Express, Market or the “cheap” segment, Supeco.
The process of transfer and change of ownership of the stores has already begun. This is expected to be completed in the coming months.
The agreement between the companies includes the preservation of jobs under the same conditions and the transfer of all materials. This was reported by sources of El Corte Inglés to the newspaper Las Provincias.