Cortefiel

Grupo Cortefiel (The Cortefiel Group) is one of Europe's leading fashion retailers operating in the specialised chain segment. It is made up of four own brands: Cortefiel, Springfield, women'secret, Pedro del Hierro and an outlet chain: Fifty Factory. Each brand has its own design team as well as sales and management structure. They share the administration, finance, technology, expansion and sourcing and human resource divisions, as well as other corporate functions, based at the central offices in Madrid. The Group is present in 79 countries with 2,056 points of sale – 1,462 directly operated stores and 594 franchises.

History and expansion in the world

Grupo Cortefiel started out in 1880 as a family-run haberdashery store situated on Calle Romanones in Madrid. Over the years, this small business would move into other areas including textile production, before finally channelling its efforts into distribution, its major activity over the last few decades.

1933 saw the creation of the La Palma shirt factory, which included the most advanced production techniques of the day. It was followed in 1945 by the tailoring factory, which in 1946 produced the first men's suits under the Cortefiel label. In 1954, and coinciding with the founding of Manufacturas del Vestido, the firm became a holding company.

The Group continued to grow during the 1980s with the creation of the men's tailoring brand Milano (1984) and its casual youth fashion brand, Springfield (1988). In 1989 the firm acquired Pedro del Hierro, and in 1993 launched women'secret, its underwear and swimwear brand created by and for women.

During the eighties work also got underway on the diversification of the Group's retail formats, driven by the need to provide the Group with greater capacity for growth and segmentation and the ability to meet consumers' needs.

Its international expansion strategy dates back to 1993, although the period of fastest growth was registered between 2000 and 2003, when the sales surface area handled by the Group increased by more than 70%. In 2005 MEP Retail acquired a stake in the Group, bringing about a change in the share ownership and management team. This same period also saw a sharp rise in the Group's global franchise business.

The women'secret online store was launched in 2000, and 2010 saw the consolidation of the Group's ecommerce area with the creation of the SPF.com online store. This will be followed in the coming months by further online stores from Pedro del Hierro, Cortefiel and Fifty Factory.

The Group has a network of international buying offices in Spain, Hong Kong and India. Distribution is centralised at the Madrid logistics platform, backed up by an additional centre in Hong Kong, supplying both the Group’s own stores and franchises. The multibrand growth strategy has been further reinforced through international expansion and the development of the online channel.

• Data as of February 2015^[1][2]

Brands

The four brands:

• Cortefiel: Since 1945 Cortefiel has been a leading name in functional urban fashions for men and women. Today it has 449 points of sale in 34 countries.
• Pedro del Hierro: Founded in 1988, Pedro del Hierro creates unique fashions for real, contemporary and self-confident women. Today it is present in 36 countries and 476 points of sale.
• Springfield: Set up in 1988, Springfield sells youthful laidback casual styles based on the concept of real clothing for real people. It is present in 63 countries with 904 points of sale.
• women'secret: Created by and for women in 1993, today women'secret is the leading name in underwear, swimwear and sleepwear. Its commercial network of 640 stores operates in no less than 60 countries.

References

1. ↑ http://www.grupocortefiel.com/en/about-us
2. ↑ http://www.memoriaaudiovisualgrupocortefiel.com/en/reporting/reports/2014/home

External links

• Cortefiel
• Pedro del Hierro
• Springfield
• women'secret