Amancio Ortega the fourth richest man in the world

Amancio Ortega Gaona is a fashion magnate and one of the most influential and successful men in the world. In June 2015, he was ranked as the fourth richest in the world with a net worth of USD $64.5 billion and currently (12/16/2015) has a net worth of $74.2 billion (estimated by Forbes). Ortega is the founder and chairman of the inditex fashion group. The Inditex Group owns many renowned brands such as Zara, Zara Home, Stradivarius, Oyosho, Bershka and Pull and Bear. In 2001 when Inditex’s shares were floated for the first time Ortega became the richest man in Spain by gaining US$6 billion. The group has more than 92,000 employees in more than 6,700 stores spread in 88 different countries

Inditex 6000^th store was launched on London’s Oxford Street. As at 2013, there were 347 Zara stores in China, 46 in the U.S and 1,938 in Spain.

Zara is currently the world’s biggest fashion retailer. More than 59% of Inditex’s share is owned by Ortega. Ortega has real estate holding in Paris, London, Madrid and Lisbon. 

FROM ZERO TO HERO

Ortega is a Spanish citizen by birth born in Busdongo de Arbás, León, on 28 March, 1936 just as the Spanish Civil War was bursting out. He grew up in La Coruña, northern Spain, with his middle class parents. He was the youngest of the four children of his father, railway worker, and mother who was a housemaid.  

According to Covadonga O’Shea, a long-time friend of Ortega and the author of ‘The Man From Zara’, at age 13 Ortega was once walking home from school with his mother and the mum stopped at a local store to buy an item on credit. Ortega heard the shop attendant say “Señora, I cannot give this to you. You have to pay for it.” Ortega was humiliated by that statement and decided not to go back to school. He dropped out of High School and started working for money.

His first job was with a local shirt-maker shop called Gala in La Coruna, Galicia, where he worked as a delivery boy. He learned how to make apparel from this shop. It was through this position he learned that customers are only satisfied when you deliver what they want within the shortest time at the affordable prices. This theory has been the secret behind the optimal performance of his Zara stores. Inditex’s success can also be traced to the real time delivery of clothing from the design stage to the stores within the shortest possible time.

As a delivery boy he stayed in an environment with few job opportunities where most men worked at sea whiles the women would do any menial job for money but were good at sewing. Ortega took advantage of this economic hardship and organised some women into sewing cooperatives. He noticed that only few wealthy people could afford the expensive clothes in town. So he started producing similar items at relatively lower prices, purchasing less expensive fabric in Barcelona. He sold the items to local shops and used the profits to start his first factory in 1963 at age 27. In 1972 Ortega founded Confecciones Goa. Ortega co-founded his first storefront, Zara, with his first wife Rosalia in 1975. He named it Zara because his preferred name Zorba, was already taken. He opened his first international store in Portugal whose labour force was cheaper than Spain. He opened the New York and Paris stores in the late 1980s.

PUBLICIST'S NIGHTMARE

He is known to be a very secretive person who barely gives interview to the press. As at June 2015, he has granted interview to only three journalists. Until 1999 no photograph of Ortega had ever been published. He was first seen in camera in 2000 prior to his company going public.  His first marriage was a secret ceremony which the date is not known publicly as at now. He never allowed for interview despite the number of mails to his head quarters from all the prestigious publications. Some journalist titled him as a "publicist's nightmare." 

LIFESTYLE

In 1986 he divorced his first wife, Rosalía Mera, with whom he has two children, a daughter and a son who is physically disable from birth.  In 2001 he got married to Flora Pérez Marcote and they gave birth to Marta Ortega Pérez who is known to be the likely successor of Ortega.

Ortega is a very simple man always seen in his blue blazer, white shirt, and gray pants at work. He now lives in a five story sea-facing house in La Coruña. He owns the tallest skyscraper in Spain, Torre Picasso, located in Madrid which is worth $535 million. He also owns a $42million private jet the ‘Global Express BD-700’ made by Bombardier. He owns a yacht called Valoria which measures 6.38 meters in width and 31.50 meters in length. The yacht is estimated to be 6 million Euros and was named in honor of the town his mother was born.

In 2001 he set the AMANCIO ORTEGA FOUNDATION which promotes research, science, education, welfare and culture. Ortega is the president and his youngest daughter Mrs. Flora Pérez serves as vice president.