About

Based in Madrid, El Corte Inglés is the biggest department store group in Europe and ranks fourth worldwide. Among the most well-organised and entrepreneurial legal teams in Spain, the lawyers at El Corte Inglés are credited for navigating the company through the significant economic decline at the turn of the decade, at a time when its profits fell by 63%. As a recently improving Spanish economy has allowed El Corte Inglés to generate record profits, the legal department has been participating actively in the company’s new vision for the future. One of the pillars of this vision has been a new digital strategy that has recently received €116m worth of funding in the form of a loan from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. El Corte Inglés intends to use the loan to make the necessary investments in new technology, in order to achieve a greater integration between the physical store and the digital environment. In addition, the company has been on the hunt for new strategic partners that would enable it to expand to new markets. In mid-2016, for example, the legal team facilitated the signing of a strategic partnership between El Corte Inglés and Tesco that would enable the Spanish retailer to expand the trial of its products in Tesco stores.