El Corte Inglés dismisses CEO after just one year

Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés is dismissing its CEO Gastón Bottazzini just one year after his appointment in July 2024. This decision follows internal disagreements with the company’s main shareholders.

Surprising decision

According to the website El Confidencial, which broke the news, the dismissal is a decision made by chairwoman Marta Álvarez. This comes as a surprise to many observers, as the CEO had a good relationship with her and previously served as her personal advisor. Strategic disagreements with the family shareholders are said to be the reason behind the dismissal.

However, the retailer posted solid results last fiscal year and has a strategic plan for 2025-2030 in place to modernize the group’s shopping centers and accelerate the digitization of the company with an investment of €3 billion. There have been several changes at the top of the company in recent years: Bottazzini was already the third CEO since 2018. In addition, two members of the management team, retail director José María Folache and logistics and real estate director Javier Catena, also recently left because they reportedly did not see eye to eye with the CEO.