El Corte Inglés drives Sfera's internationalisation with 28 new stores outside Spain

Madrid – Following its last Annual General Meeting exactly one week ago, the management of El Corte Inglés has now published the financial and non-financial reports for its 2025 financial year. The period ended on February 28, during which the company quietly continued to give a special international boost to Sfera, its fashion and accessories chain.

Created in 2001, while still under the presidency of Isidoro Álvarez, the first Sfera stores began to open to the public during the 2002 financial year. This marked the beginning of a bold venture for El Corte Inglés into the retail scene. The move came at a time when the declining relevance and influence of department stores was becoming increasingly apparent.

Specialised chains had already begun to demonstrate their strength in responding better, and above all faster, to the changing needs and tastes of fashion consumers. In response to these strengths, El Corte Inglés sought to combine its efforts. The decision was made in 2020, under the presidency of Marta Álvarez, to absorb Sfera and integrate it into its structures.

As a result of this merger by absorption, which was carried out with the aim of “leveraging synergies between the group's different formats” to “gain in efficiency and profitability”, Sfera ceased to operate independently. This occurred at a time marked by the coronavirus pandemic, and the brand began to operate entirely under the El Corte Inglés group umbrella. This corporate restructuring meant that Sfera no longer had to present its own financial results, which were instead integrated into the general balance sheet of El Corte Inglés.

Adding 21 net stores in 2025

The consequence of all this is that it is currently impossible to know the exact year-on-year performance of the El Corte Inglés fashion and accessories chain in full detail. While the group does not detail the chain's evolution in terms of revenue and profit on its own, it does offer a series of different insights to estimate how positive or negative its performance may be.

These notes include its market performance in terms of revenue and, above all, the investment strategies for its retail network being executed by El Corte Inglés. These efforts could be seen as the group's response to positive returns, or at best, its firm intention to continue investing in its growth and market consolidation.

Profit fall of more than -44 percent in Sfera's Mexican business

Starting with its economic indicators, as noted in the 2025 Financial Report, Sfera's results are integrated into the retail business chapter of El Corte Inglés. This includes the activity of its department store network, convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets. This segment generated global revenues of 13,216 million euros (+1.22 percent), representing 76.63 percent of its annual revenue of 17,247 million euros (+1.14 percent). It also recorded a net profit of 470 million euros (+28 percent), which is 74.84 percent of its annual net profit of 628 million euros (+22.65 percent).

Alongside these general figures, from which it is impossible to extract an analysis of the performance of Sfera stores, El Corte Inglés does offer details on the evolution of its Mexican subsidiary. The company, Moda Sfera Joven México, is 51 percent owned by El Corte Inglés and 49 percent by the Mexican group El Puerto de Liverpool. It closed the 2025 financial year with an estimated net profit of around 11.22 million euros (-44.45 percent).

With 28 new international points of sale

Despite this apparent drop in the profitability of its operations in Mexico, the 2025 financial year has highlighted El Corte Inglés's clear objective to continue promoting and consolidating Sfera's position as a multinational chain. This goal has materialised in the last fiscal year with the opening of a total of 28 new points of sale outside Spain. These openings have enabled the chain to expand its international retail network by 21 net points of sale.

By geography, Sfera ended the 2025 financial year with a total of 171 stores in Spain, two fewer than at the end of the previous year. This included 102 of its own independent stores (one fewer than the previous year) and 69 stores located inside El Corte Inglés shopping centres (one fewer). Within the Iberian Peninsula, its retail footprint was completed with the nine stores Sfera had in Portugal at the end of the year, one fewer than the previous year after reducing its independent stores from eight to seven. In addition, there are two spaces within the El Corte Inglés centres in Lisbon and Oporto.

Beyond the Iberian market, Sfera significantly boosted its international footprint during the 2025 financial year, increasing its international points of sale from 346 to 367. This followed the opening of 28 stores which, together with the -seven closures made during the year, resulted in 21 net openings outside Spain and Portugal. These openings were led by the inauguration of 20 new franchised stores, increasing from 289 to 309 points of sale across 14 international markets.

The openings were completed with the inauguration of one more Sfera-owned store outside Spain and Portugal, a category that grew from 57 to 58 international stores. This corresponds entirely to the chain's points of sale in Mexico, which are managed through the joint venture between El Corte Inglés and the Mexican group El Puerto de Liverpool.

A retail network growing to 547 points of sale across 17 countries

In more detail, of the 547 stores Sfera had at the close of the 2025 financial year (+18 more stores), 171 were in Spain (-two fewer stores); nine in Portugal (-one fewer store); and 367 were distributed across 15 international markets (+21 more stores). Within this group of countries, Sfera adjusted its retail footprint with 28 openings throughout the year in Switzerland (+13 openings); Ireland (+10 openings); Cyprus (+two openings); Costa Rica (+one opening); Mexico (+one opening); and Panama (+one opening). These more than compensated for the -seven closures that took place in Chile (-three closures); Martinique (-two closures); El Salvador (-one closure); and Réunion Island (-one closure).

As a result of these openings and closures, Sfera ended the 2025 financial year with a total of 547 stores, distributed across 17 markets. Specifically, these were in Spain (171 stores); Switzerland (65 stores); Mexico (58 stores); Chile (58 stores); Peru (45 stores); Thailand (42 stores); Ireland (32 stores); El Salvador (13 stores); Paraguay (12 stores); Panama (12 stores); Guatemala (10 stores); Portugal (nine stores); Costa Rica (eight stores); Nicaragua (four stores); Cyprus (four stores); the United Arab Emirates (three stores); and Qatar (one store). It is also noteworthy that, following the closures made during the year, the chain no longer had a commercial presence in the markets of Martinique and Réunion Island at the end of the financial year.