El Corte Inglés strengthens its international presence
What: Last year, the retailer reached a turnover of EUR 600 million outside of Spain.
Why is it important: Portugal and Mexico are the two most important markets.
After Spain, the first market outside for the company is Portugal, where it has two department stores - one in Lisbon and one in Porto - with a turnover of EUR 397 million in the last financial year. The second most important market is Mexico, with 50 Sfera stores and 88 Viajes El Corte Inglés offices, and sales in 2020 of EUR 92.9 million and the third Chile, already further away with EUR 13.4 million, which adds 58 stores and 10 travel agencies.
As far as the international presence is concerned, the 60 franchised distribution points that El Corte Inglés has in Switzerland, the 42 in Peru or the 28 in Thailand stand out. Apart from the business in Portugal, as a whole, the group has 56 Sfera stores outside Spain, 262 franchisees and 133 Travel Agency El Corte Inglés.
El Corte Inglés also maintains its commitment to the internationalization of its own brands in the different categories, where fashion and food stand out.
Germany is one of the markets where the sports brands Boomerang and Mountain Pro have the largest presence with a total of 120 points of sale in the country, thanks to the alliance with the department store Karstadt Kaufhof Gallery. But El Corte Inglés also has agreements to sell some of its own brands in countries such as Russia, Andorra or Paraguay, among others.
In Ecuador, own-brand products are sold through La Favorita supermarkets, the leader in the distribution of mass consumption in this country. Grupo Rey supermarkets, in Panama, market a wide assortment of own-brand products and in Mexico the presence of the El Corte Inglés assortment in the Soriana supermarket chain has been promoted, while the products of the Club del Gourmet brand are available in the Palacio de Hierro department store. For its part, the presence of food and personal hygiene products has been maintained in Cuba. In Peru, El Corte Inglés maintains the distribution agreement with Supermercados Peruanos through its Plaza Vivanda and Plaza Vea banners; and in Colombia with Success.
