Economic Environment Weighing On El Corte Inglés

摘要

The latest annual results from Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés continuento point to the very challenging underlying conditions. Duringn2011, the firm’s sales fell by 3.9% to EUR15.78bn while net profitsnfell by 34% to EUR210mn. The firm had previously stated that itnwas attempting to adapt to the underlying economic environmentnby reducing operating costs and increasing efficiency, but this dropnin profitability (which follows a drop of 13.5% in 2010) indicatesnthat there is only so much that can be done in this area when thenunderlying consumer environment is so weak.