Marta Álvarez, president of El Corte Inglés: "We have a project and we have a future"

The English Court held its annual shareholders meeting on Sunday, the first one with Marta Álvarez as president. "We have a project and future," said the executive after a meeting in which the annual accounts have been approved (presented in June) and voted in favor of the merger of department stores with Bricor.

"We are a company that is close to society and that understands the needs of people," said the president before the shareholders. "We have a promising future before us," he added.

The board has approved the merger of Bricor, the DIY and decoration chain, with the department stores. The objective is, as happened with the absorption of Hipercor, to avoid duplication in the commercial offer, improve this offer and obtain synergies.

Last year the sales of Bricor, which has 63 stores in Spain and two in Portugal, fell almost 16% (91 million euros). The Corte Inglés group had a turnover of 15,783 million euros, 1.1 more than in the previous year and obtained a profit of 258 million, almost 28% more.

Counselors

The Shareholders' Meeting has also approved the renewal of Manuel Pizarro as director. The board is currently made up of Marta Álvarez and her sister Cristina Álvarez, the directors Fernando Beker, Florencio Lasaga, Carlos Martínez Echavarría, the Qatari shareholder Shahzad Shahbaz, Mancor portfolio and Ceslar Corporation. In addition, Víctor del Pozo and Jesús Nuño de la Rosa, who remain CEOs.

Marta Álvarez has emphasized the three challenges facing the group: digital transformation, empowering its own brands to adapt department stores to the demands of consumption and the development of new products and services.

"We are at a decisive moment, we have the ideas to close new businesses, to evolve at the pace that society demands, to achieve our goals," added the executive.

The English Court gathers its shareholders on the last Sunday of August, shortly after submitting their annual accounts. This is the first meeting of Álvarez as president. She was elected in office last June, replacing Jesús Nuño de la Rosa.

She is the daughter of former deceased president Isidoro Álvarez and has come to the presidency almost a year after the power crisis that the group experienced and ended the dismissal of their cousin, Dimas Gimeno, as president. His name, then, already rang in the presidential pool, but it was Nuño de la Rosa who took the reins.

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