doc_ECI

Brief historical notes
El Corte Inglés takes its name from a small tailor's shop founded in 1890 and located between Madrid's Preciados, Carmen and Rompelanzas Streets. In 1935, Mr.
Ramón Areces Rodríguez, backed by his uncle César Rodríguez, bought the tailor's shop, and this was the start of his entrepreneurial adventure. After the Spanish Civil
War, in 1939, he also acquired a property in Madrid's Preciados Street, number 3, converting the ground and first floors and part of the second floor into sales areas.
In June 1940, when the business had seven employees in all, Ramón Areces set up the El Corte Inglés company, with his uncle César Rodríguez as shareholder and first
chairman of the company.
Between the years 1945 and 1946 the first comprehensive refurbishment of the premises was undertaken, bringing the total sales
area up to 2,000 square metres, spread over five floors. This was the beginning of the definitive sales structure by departments t
ypical of a department store. Between 1953 and 1955 the adjacent building at number 5 Preciados was incorporated, effectively
doubling the sales area. As time went by a number of extensions and alterations were carried out in order to project a modern
image appropriate to the demands and needs of society.
The sixties were key years for the expansion of El Corte Inglés as a department store, with new centres opening in Barcelona,
Seville and Bilbao, as well as Madrid, where the number of branches steadily increased, while at the same time the existing ones
consolidated with a growing range of products.
From the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, the group experienced major growth, marked by expansion to other provincial capitals and by the diversification of its sales
activity, which began to branch out into other lines of business. Thus in 1969 Viajes El Corte Inglés (Travel Agency) was established, ten years later Hipercor was set
up, and in 1982 El Corte Inglés acquired the insurance company Centro de Seguros. The decade of the eighties was an intense period that ended with the death of
Ramón Areces on 30 July 1989. Over many of the past years, the chairman had been preparing his successor, Isidoro Álvarez, who since 1966 had held the position of
managing director.
By the time Isidoro Álvarez took over the as chairman of El Corte Inglés on 2 August 1989, he knew the business inside out. In 1989, two new companies were set up
and started to operate in the insurance branch: On the one hand, Seguros El Corte Inglés, Vida, Pensiones y Reaseguros, and on the other, Seguros El Corte Inglés,
Ramos Generales y Reaseguros, S.A. This period of sustained growth culminated in 1995 with the achievement of a major milestone: the acquisition of the properties
of Galerías Preciados, the incorporation of 5,200 employees into the workforce and major investments to adapt the acquired assets to the commercial policy and
business culture of the group.
On 29 June 2001 the company Hipercor acquired five hypermarkets from Carrefour, together with the corresponding shopping centres. All these assets were included
in the divestment plan imposed by the government following the merger of Pryca and Continente. The five hypermarkets are located in Burgos, Valladolid, Aviles,
Seville and Malaga. On Monday 2 July of that same year all these hypermarkets were opened under the name Hipercor.