El Corte Inglés replaced its dying chairman with his nephew inside 48 hours

El Corte Inglés was Spain's retail institution — founded in 1940 by Ramón Areces, run from 1966 by his nephew Isidoro Álvarez, president from 1989. By 2014 it was also a house with a succession problem disguised as stability: Álvarez was 79, and the family's control was split between the Ramón Areces Foundation — the group's biggest shareholder, whose board he chaired — and family shareholders, while the group had only recently refinanced a heavy debt load and sold 51% of its finance arm to Santander.

Álvarez had already built the answer. In 2010 he brought his sister's son Dimas Gimeno onto the board; in August 2013 he made him consejero director general — the exact title Álvarez himself had held before succeeding his uncle. When Álvarez died on Sunday 14 September 2014, the board needed until Tuesday: on 16 September it named Gimeno, 39, president in a three-line statement, the veteran directors backing him 'as it was Isidoro's wish', as El País reported. The founding family stayed in charge for the fourth generation, and Gimeno also took over the foundation holding the stake.

The first full year justified the rehearsal: sales rose 4.3% to €15.22 billion, profit jumped 34% to €158 million, EBITDA reached €912 million, and bank debt was cut from €3,089 million to €1,830 million. Gimeno pushed the group's modernisation — e-commerce, Gourmet Experience halls, asset sales — on top of the Sheikh Al Thani's €1 billion capital injection that had preceded him.

The ending was less tidy. Álvarez's daughters Marta and Cristina inherited his shares, board tension with Gimeno mounted, and in June 2018 the FT recorded his dismissal; he left with €8.5 million in severance. In July 2019 the family's shareholders elected his cousin Marta Álvarez president, unanimously, returning the top job to the founder's bloodline — with professional executives beneath her.

First full year under Gimeno: sales up 4.3% to €15.22bn, profit up 34% to €158m, EBITDA €912m, bank debt cut from €3,089m to €1,830m

The succession had been staged in advance: board seat in 2010, the family's traditional heir-apparent title in 2013, so no campaign was needed when death came.

The veteran directors who had served Álvarez since before 1989 all backed Gimeno, removing any opening for a public family fight.

Control sat with the family foundation, so the decision could be taken inside the family's own governance without outside shareholders forcing a process.

As a private company ECI could choose continuity over market theatre — the price of that privacy was that its debt refinance the year before gave the family room to wait.

A founder's death becomes a transition only if it was rehearsed. Gimeno got the deputy title his uncle once held, a board seat and a year's runway — so the handover itself took two days.

The 48-hour handover held for nearly four years. Under Gimeno the group cut its bank debt by more than €1.2 billion and rebuilt profit, but the power balance his uncle left — sisters holding the founder's shares, a young president from a cousin line — eventually broke: the board dismissed him in June 2018 with an €8.5 million settlement, and in July 2019 Marta Álvarez became president by unanimous family vote. The house stayed private, family-owned and, at the end of 2021, still ran 81 department stores with a workforce near 80,000.