Isidoro Alvarez, chairman of Spanish retailer, dies

Isidoro Alvarez, chairman of Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés SA, died Sunday in a Madrid hospital. He was 79.

Alvarez, who died of heart failure, was "one of the great businessmen of this country," Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said.

His death marks a changing of the guard in Spain after Banco Santander SA's chairman, Emilio Botin, died last week. This year also saw the abdication of King Juan Carlos and the passing of Adolfo Suarez, the prime minister who led the nation into democracy in the 1970s.

Alvarez inherited 15 percent of Europe's biggest department store chain from his uncle, Ramon Areces, who founded the company out of a tailor shop in central Madrid. He had a net worth of $919 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires data. Alvarez's nephew, Dimas Gimeno Alvarez, sits on the company's board and was named general manager last year.

"My education has always been El Corte Inglés and my teacher, Ramon Areces," Alvarez had said on the company's website.

Isidoro Alvarez began working at El Corte Inglés at the age of 18, while studying economics and business sciences at the Complutense University in Madrid.

He became managing director of El Corte Inglés in 1966 and took over as chairman in 1989 following his uncle's death.

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Under his watch, the closely held company started offering insurance and travel agency services, opened superstores and acquired Marks & Spencer Group Plc stores in Spain. El Corte Inglés reported consolidated sales of $18.5 billion in 2013.

Providing superior service and quality merchandise was part of Alvarez's mantra for decades. Armies of formally dressed salespeople flock to shoppers in the company's brightly lit stores. Every year, the company has sent birthday cards from Alvarez to 11 million store cardholders.