El Corte Inglés

El Corte Inglés ( “El Corte Ingles” , translated from Spanish as “English cut”) is a network of Spanish trading houses. The largest chain of department stores in Europe , also ranks fourth by its size in the world. El Corte Inglés has 87 department stores in 2013, of which 85 are located on the mainland of Spain, in the Canary and Balearic Islands . In 2001, the first El Corte Inglés trading house opened outside Lisbon in Spain, and the second El Corte Inglés in Portugal opened in 2006 in Vila Nova de Gaia . Is planned ^{[ when? ]} opening a store in Rome .

The name comes from the sewing studio of children's clothing, which opened in Madrid in 1890. In 1940, Ramon Areses acquired an atelier, transformed it into a joint-stock company and started selling goods. Currently, it remains a family business, as the majority shareholders are members of the Areses family and the Ramona Areses Foundation.

The El Corte Inglés group also includes Hipercor supermarket chains, Supercor supermarkets , 24-hour Opencor supermarkets and travel agencies Viajes El Corte Inglés .