El Corte Inglés, the Spanish department store group that remains one of the major sporting goods retailers in its domestic market, is gearing up to launch a special web store in the U.K., Ireland and the Netherlands, proposing to become the biggest marketplace for Spanish brands in Europe. Desigual, which has just launched its own first collection of active sportswear, is said to be one of the first 200-odd brands that will be offered on the new www.elcorteingles.eu website. The Spanish online platform of El Corte Inglés hosts 30 specialized stores and has 3.5 million registered visitors. It received more than 137 million visits during the financial year ended in February 2013.

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