Spanish department store group El Corte Inglés is preparing to raise investment in AI and e-commerce, but president Cristina Álvarez’s insists that stores remain the company’s core differentiator.
This September, when its board meets, El Corte Inglés will be proposing to increase its investments in business growth, logistics and new tech.
President Cristina Álvarez told shareholders at the company’s latest annual general meeting, held in Madrid on July 24, that she will then be proposing the revision to company strategy. What the new tech is remains to be seen, but Álvarez spoke of AI and e-commerce.
The former, she said, ought never to replace “the essence of our company” but instead “help personalize the buying experience, optimize the availability of products, render attention more agile and above all better interpret the needs of our customers.” The latter, meanwhile, has been “growing by the day,” the retailer’s webpage and app now serving as “the entryway for many customers.”
Yet neither is to detract from physical stores, which Álvarez called a “differentiating value,” an “essential asset through which to connect with customers.”
Shareholders unanimously approved all board proposals at the meeting, including the management report, the annual accounts and the non-financial and sustainability report. They also ratified Javier Catena’s appointment as CEO. Catena will oversee the revised strategy’s rollout.
The company’s financial results for fiscal-year 2025 (ended Feb. 28, 2026) were as follows:
- Global revenues (gross sales of external operators included) of €17,247 million, with net sales of €14,988 million (+2% YoY on comparable-surface basis)
- EBITDA of €1,266 million (+4.7% YoY)
- Net income of €628 million (+22.8% YoY), recurring net income of €522 million (+11% YoY)
- Net financial debt down by €148 million, for leverage of 1.3 times EBITDA (lowest in two decades), with asset value up by more than €300 million on investments
- Planned increase in investments for this year of 14.6 percent
