El Corte Inglés, one of Europe’s largest department store chains, has been promoting the responsible use of forest resources in its recent Back to School promotions. As part of this, FSC-certified paper products made by Frost – the company’s stationery brand – helped to raise awareness of responsible forestry. These products, such as notebooks, paper refills and folders, all contained a promotional first page or flyer that included the new Forests For All Forever branding in Spanish.

El Corte Inglés brings Forests For All Forever to its stores

El Corte Inglés’ many stores are found in Portugal and Spain, with the company’s headquarters located in Madrid. The joint FROST + FSC Forests For All Forever campaign, which finished at the end of September 2015, took place in the company’s department and convenience stores across both countries.

The campaign was promoted in other ways, including the Back to School catalogue, a consumer-facing campaign web page and on social media. El Corte Inglés wanted to attract new, environmentally aware customers by donating €0.10 for each campaign product sold. The donations will be given to an FSC-certified forest conservation initiative in Segovia, Spain.

El Corte Inglés brings Forests For All Forever to its stores

Sales of the Frost range of paper products were 45% higher than those of the leading brand in this category, and the campaign was a success, according to Luis Viso, Product Manager at El Corte Inglés. “The reasons for such good results can be found in the attractive design, the quality of the products, good prices, and brand positioning through an innovative partnership with FSC and the Forests For All Forever brand,” he said. “This initiative helped to increase awareness among the youngest members of each house, as using paper products at school helps them to think about responsible forest management” added Delia Garcia, Value Chain CSR Manager at El Corte Inglés.

El Corte Inglés brings Forests For All Forever to its stores

The campaign took place one and a half years after El Corte Inglés received its FSC trademark licence. Since then, the company has been using the FSC logo in all its stores, for example on catalogues, on parking tickets and on sales receipts. It also offers its own FSC-certified products, for example toilet paper and other paper products. It is currently working to increase the number of FSC-labelled products in its own product range, and will soon use the FSC logo on its Christmas wrapping paper for the first time.