El Corte Inglés makes the fifth change in the leadership since the end of the pandemic

BarcelonaNew change at the top of El Corte Inglés. The board of directors of the department store company, chaired by Cristina Álvarez, has appointed Javier Catena as CEO. The senior executive, who had left the company during Gastón Bottazzini's tenure as CEO, from 2024 to 2025, returned as operations director, which includes the areas of supply chain and real estate logistics, the position he currently held. Since the end of the pandemic, the department store company has changed its top executive five times.

At the same time as Catena's promotion was decided, Santiago Bau, who had been the group's general manager since last October, is leaving the company by "mutual agreement" with the company. And Catena, whose promotion signifies the recovery of the CEO position, "will be responsible for the implementation of the company's strategic plan, which is in the process of being updated", according to a company statement. The CEO will lead the management committee, group sources have explained.

The president, Cristina Álvarez, assures that the incorporation of Javier Catena as CEO, whose appointment was unanimous by the board of directors, "will be decisive in this new stage of growth and investment, while also allowing for the strengthening of a corporate governance structure better adapted to new challenges".

Five top executives in six years

Bau, who is now leaving the company, replaced last October, with the position of general manager, the previous CEO, Gastón Bottazzini, who held this position from July 2024 to October 2025 with the previous president, Marta Álvarez, sister of the current one. Previously, the chief executive, from March 2022 to October 2024, was José María Folache as general manager, and he was preceded by Víctor del Pozo, who held the position of CEO from 2017 to 2022.

These changes at the top occur a few days after the group's results for the past season were announced. El Corte Inglés closed the 2025-2026 fiscal year with a net profit of 628 million euros, an increase of 22.8% compared to the previous season. Recurrent net profit, that is, that corresponding to department stores, its typical activity, reached 522 million and grew by 11%. The company managed to reduce its debt to 1,648 million. This evolution of the group's liabilities thus placed the debt level at 1.3 times ebitda, "the lowest in almost two decades," according to the company. Operating result (ebitda), of 1,266 million, increased by 4.7% over the previous year.

The contribution of the travel business was also significant, with an increase of 3.1% in its turnover, to 2,117 million, driven mainly by the holiday segment and the recovery of corporate business. Another important variable was that of the space commercialization business, with an increase of 14.4%, to 95 million euros. The company highlighted the use of spaces in shopping centers for charging electric vehicles, as well as the solid performance of Kumo, El Corte Inglés' data center business, which now has a new center in Paterna (Valencia).