Friday, October 31, 2008

El Corte Ingles admits a drop in sales for the first time in its history

An executive of the giant distribution is "very likely fail to attain the figures of 2007," when billed 18,000 million. Isidoro Alvarez warned in August that the exercise had "many difficulties". In the center, Angel Aguado, yesterday at the new center of Seville, along with two directors? El Corte Ingles. ? Juan Flores / Expansion. The crisis seems to be affecting one of the flagships of the business fabric Spanish: El Corte Ingles. Although the giant distribution never makes public its forecasts, a director of the group admitted yesterday that with all certainty, its turnover in 2008 will be lower than the previous year. It would be the first time in modern history, of company reduced its sales interannual. In relation to the effect that the halt in consumption is having on your business in Spain, Angel Aguado, regional director of El Corte Ingles in Spain the third-place group by turnover, after Madrid and Barcelona, said: "It is we will probably not succeed in the figures of last year, something to which we are accustomed. " Although he did not want to quantify what percentage could lose sales, it said that in no case would reach double digits. Aguado left the door open to a hypothetical recovery driven by the Christmas campaign, although he acknowledged that "it is very complicated" due to the sharp downturn that is being logged in consumption in the second half of the year. Throwing hand of a soccer metaphor, said that "not lost hope" to "tie the game," referring to replicate the results of 2007. Crisis unusual It also was surprised by the virulence of the current crisis and confessed that "since I work in El Corte Ingles, many years ago, I do not recall a situation in such affection." In his opinion, not even the economic break of the first half of the nineties of the last century is comparable. "And for us, the opening of schools now have less significance [in the volume of business] then, as they are starting from an increasingly broad basis", explained. Asked whether the crisis affecting most of the small business or large, was emphatic: "It is absurd to say that everything is going as usual, because consumption is not going their best moments and problems affecting both large as a small ". Despite this, Aguado said it plans to expand the teaching of the green triangle still intact and, as an example, he referred to the center that El Corte Ingles filed yesterday in Seville and which has invested 100 million euros. "The consumer is not going their best moments and problems affecting both large as a small" Internationalization Finally, he recalled that one of the challenges the group is to initiate a plan for internationalization, given that, at present, their presence outside the borders Spanish boils down to Portugal. The words he delivered yesterday by the managers in the capital Hispalense only confirms the warnings and put on the table the chairman of the group, Isidoro Alvarez, last August, during the presentation of the economic balance sheet for 2007. On that occasion, the businessman acknowledged that the Spanish distribution would have to "face new challenges that will test the response capacity, adaptation and innovation in the sector, an unfavorable economic environment." Relying on consumption data for the first half of the year ( "bad, but far better than the current"), Alvarez sight "of a financial year 2008 with many difficulties." Horizon complex In this line, which opens in effect "a horizon complex, whose main features are less predictable contribution of domestic demand in the economy and the continuation of the slowdown in domestic consumption." Last year, El Corte Ingles billed by 4.7% to almost 18,000 million, while profit improved by 5.1%. In the previous financial year, net sales increased by 7.8% and net profit had gone down by 9%

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