Viajes El Corte Ingles lost 90 percent turnover 2020 pandemic - The travel division of El Corte Inglés suffered a severe blow by the arrival of the pandemic, which almost coincided with the start of its fiscal year and has barely allowed it to operate in this last year.

The travel business El Corte Inglés closed the year in the red, as the agency lost 157.9 million euros, while in 2019 it made a profit of 27.7 million, according to the latest accounts presented by the company in the Mercantile Registry of which El País reports.

From March to May 2020, most of the offices were kept closed, which led to the practical disappearance of sales, in addition to massive returns to customers.

According to the company in the management document, this led to the agency generating negative cash in almost every day of the period until the middle of June 2020.

The end of the confinement was not the end of the crisis for the company, which, like other companies in the sector, was seriously affected by restrictions on mobility between countries.

Viajes El Corte Ingles lost 90 percent turnover 2020 pandemic

With this, Viajes El Corte Inglés has also suffered the constant comings and goings of the limitations imposed on mobility, which for months have been a great uncertainty for travelers.

"The gradual reopening of sales offices began on May 25, 2020 and was done progressively according to the recovery of demand and with a focus on optimizing profitability. On June 10, all the delegations were open” " they explain in the report.

Again, and due to the following waves that undermined demand, the company decided to close again ‘temporarily’ a large number of sales delegations that gradually reopened for the summer season.

The months of almost zero activity could only lead to the income statement not being at all positive.

As published by El País, turnover fell by 90.07% and went from almost 2,450 million in 2019 to 243 million last year. Gross operating income fell from 37.2 million to negative 156 million in 2020.

Viajes El Corte Ingles lost 90 percent turnover 2020 pandemic

The rest of the divisions did not have better results and thus, the Group closed the year with the first negative result in the company's history: losses of 2,945 million euros.

Now, Viajes el Corte Inglés is recovering little by little and, although the improvement is constant, there is still a long way to reach the levels prior to the pandemic, as society recognizes.

Given the lack of visibility into the speed of recovery, the company notes that certain discipline and cost control measures continue to be implemented to ensure the minimization of operating expenses and preserve liquidity.

"The most relevant was to carry out several ERTE processes, one for' force majeure ‘and 2 for’ economic, technical, organizational or production ' causes that affected almost all the workforce,” the report states.

Despite everything, the Group is confident of the contained demand for the coming months and proof of this is its announced merger with Logitravel to create a leader in the travel sector in Spain.

Viajes El Corte Ingles lost 90 percent turnover 2020 pandemic