In the business world, Amancio Ortega Gaona is known as the most “closed” billionaire who does not agree to interviews and does not seek to organize or attend social events. He has been called a man of mystery, a man of legend, the Spanish Sphinx and the uncrowned king of design. He belongs to the category of people who are said to have made themselves: starting from scratch, they reached the top of the world.

The future multimillionaire was born on March 28, 1936 in the small Spanish town of Leon in the family of a simple railway worker and a maid.

The family's income was more than modest, so Amancio had to earn his own living at a fairly early age - 13 years old. Because of this, he didn't even graduate from high school.

My first job was as a messenger in a small clothing store. He then moved to the La Maja store, where his brother and sister were already working. It was this time that became significant for Amancio. Indeed, in La Maja he began to learn the basics of tailoring, cutting, crimping and draping fabrics. After the family had to move, due to a change in his father’s job, to the city of La Coruña, 14-year-old Amancio Ortega became an apprentice to one of the Spanish fashion designers. Interesting fact.

The owner of the tailor shop where Amancio worked told his father that the boy would not make a tailor because the guy was too reserved and uncommunicative.

Harbingers of wealth

In the 60s of the twentieth century, Amancio managed to get the position of manager of one of the local clothing stores. During his work, he began to notice that there were quite a few clients buying expensive clothes, so he became interested in methods for setting prices and the possibilities of reducing them.

The first step in this direction was the purchase of cheaper fabrics and sewing of the first batch of clothes, sketches and patterns for which were developed by Ortega himself. This entrepreneurial move allowed for significant savings on the cost of outfits. And the manufactured products were not inferior in quality to those already sold in the store, but their undeniable advantage was their lower cost. Thanks to this idea, Amancio managed to save enough money to start his own business.

At the age of 27, Amancio Ortega, together with his wife Rosalia, opened the Confecciones GOA factory, which was located in the living room of their home. The company specialized in sewing underwear and home clothes. Without trying to rack his brains over creating new sketches, Ortega decided to build a business by copying models of a popular, but very expensive, brand.

My first job was as a messenger in a small clothing store. He then moved to the La Maja store, where his brother and sister were already working. It was this time that became significant for Amancio. Indeed, in La Maja he began to learn the basics of tailoring, cutting, crimping and draping fabrics. After the family had to move, due to a change in his father’s job, to the city of La Coruña, 14-year-old Amancio Ortega became an apprentice to one of the Spanish fashion designers. The abbreviation GOA is the initials of the designer's full name read backwards. The idea of ​​copying clothes became so successful that an enterprising businessman made the recreation of existing, but expensive, designer models a kind of calling card of his own brand.

Ortega’s business began to flourish little by little and already in 1975 he managed to open a full-fledged store to sell his clothes, the philosophy of which was the slogan: the availability of fashionable and truly high-quality clothes for all segments of the population. The store was named Zara and later it became recognizable all over the world.

10 years later, the Inditex Group corporation was created, which included a whole chain of Zara stores and enterprises supporting its activities. In the late 80s, stores of the same name appeared in Porto (Portugal), and then in Paris and New York. At this time, Ortega became well known in the fashion world and many fashion houses saw him as a real competitor. After all, Amancio’s business flourished: his collections were updated within a few days, and his prices were so low that many fashionistas and fashionistas preferred to dress only from him.

At the turn of the new millennium, the Pull and Bear network appeared, becoming the property of the already existing Inditex Group. The Bershka and Stradivarius networks were also created. In 2001, a brand appeared, for which Ortega created exclusively underwear, bed linen, and beachwear. The brand was named Oysho.

My first job was as a messenger in a small clothing store. He then moved to the La Maja store, where his brother and sister were already working. It was this time that became significant for Amancio. Indeed, in La Maja he began to learn the basics of tailoring, cutting, crimping and draping fabrics. After the family had to move, due to a change in his father’s job, to the city of La Coruña, 14-year-old Amancio Ortega became an apprentice to one of the Spanish fashion designers. Currently, the number of Zara stores in the world is increasing at a rate of 1 store every 36 hours.

New victories

In 2001, Amancio Ortega decided to place part of the Inditex Group shares in public trading. The demand for shares was enormous, their price soared by 22%, the company's capitalization amounted to $6 billion. The sale of securities made Ortega one of the richest people in the world.

My first job was as a messenger in a small clothing store. He then moved to the La Maja store, where his brother and sister were already working. It was this time that became significant for Amancio. Indeed, in La Maja he began to learn the basics of tailoring, cutting, crimping and draping fabrics. After the family had to move, due to a change in his father’s job, to the city of La Coruña, 14-year-old Amancio Ortega became an apprentice to one of the Spanish fashion designers. In 2008, when Spain was gripped by a financial crisis, the country's government held a meeting with major industrialists to resolve the problems that had arisen. Only Amancio Ortega, whose sales during the crisis increased by 14%, did not come.

Secrets of success

The emergence of wealth was not a fortunate coincidence for the enterprising Spaniard. This happened thanks to the correct business structure:

• cheaper products by combining all stages of production in one hand and the absence of intermediaries;
• bringing production as close as possible to distribution by placing orders with homeworkers in their own province. This gave it flexibility and responsiveness in the market, even with higher labor costs.

Thanks to such actions, it is possible to supply stores with new designer clothes faster than competitors, and to discontinue collections that are not in demand in a timely manner.

Another component of a businessman’s success is maintaining customer interest in the brand through constant updates of collections by copying models of famous designers. This can be achieved by visiting all the fashion shows of famous houses around the world by Zara representatives and transferring interesting options to the main office in A Coruña. Here, designers quickly create the necessary patterns and patterns, on the basis of which, just as quickly, clothes are sewn directly at the factory or at home by seamstresses. With the help of the prepared batch, the product is updated in Zara stores. And this happens regularly, once every three to four days. On average, up to 200 stylish new styles can be delivered to each retail outlet.

Family

Amancio's first marriage ended in 1986. His wife's name was Rosalia and she bore him two children - Sandra and Marco.

The billionaire's second wife was Flora Perez Marcote, who gave birth to his daughter Martha. Today, Marta is the head of one of the Spanish branches of Inditex.

The entire Ortega family are shareholders of the family corporation.

Forbes ratings

In 2015, Zara founder Amancio Ortega overtook Bill Gates to become the richest person in the world.

In 2017, Amancio Ortega was named the richest Spaniard. And in the overall ranking of the richest people in the world, he became fourth, with a fortune of $71.3 billion.

Activities today

In 2011, Amancio left the chair of the board of directors of Inditex and announced his retirement. For the most part he spends time in A Coruña, although he owns luxury houses and hotels in many countries around the world. Amancio Ortega contains charities, helping in different directions:

• disabled children;
• medical research;
• education.

Does not stop its activities in the field of tourism, oil and gas industry. He devotes a lot of time to his great passion - horses and horse riding (he has his own hippodrome). He is interested in football and loves to draw.

Useful videos

The success story of Amancio Ortega.

The Zara phenomenon. Clothing marketing.

Amancio Ortega Gaona is the founder and ex-president of Inditex, which owns 6,750 stores in 88 countries. Ortega actively invests in real estate, the gas industry, banks and tourism. In 2012, Bloomberg recognized him richest man in Europe.

In June 2012, Amancio Ortega Gaona was recognized as one of the richest people in Europe. His fortune is estimated at more than 39.5 billion US dollars. The success story of this man is interesting precisely because he achieved everything through his hard work and perseverance.

The future billionaire was born in 1936 in the small Spanish town of Buzdongo de Arbas. The family lived very poorly, so from early childhood Amancio had to help his parents. He never managed to finish school. At a young age, Ortega got a job as a delivery boy for a tailor who sewed clothes for wealthy people. Amancio, while doing his work, also looked closely at the peculiarities of the tailor’s style, becoming familiar with the intricacies of sewing and cutting.

Soon the family moved to the city of La Coruña, the center of the textile industry in Spain. Thanks to his existing experience, Amancio was hired at the La Maja haberdashery store. There, a fourteen-year-old teenager improved his skills, sewed on his own and tried to understand all the details of this business. In La Maja he met his future wife Rosalia Mera, with whom he then successfully engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

Through meticulous study of the entire pricing process, from model creation, production, transportation and delivery to the store, Amancio realized weak sides such a system. Since each stage was financially independent from the others, the price of the product was affected by significant percentages, and it became too expensive for the consumer.

Ortega began to create his own business, taking into account the mistakes of his predecessors. When sewing products, he used special patterns and inexpensive but high-quality fabrics, which reduced the cost of production. Amancio focused on the general consumer, trying to make fashion accessible to most people. And most importantly, he created a complex of enterprises that ensured compliance with the entire technological process: sewing, storing and selling products.

In 1972, the Ortega couple created their own knitting factory for sewing underwear and dressing gowns, Confecciones GOA. Now Amancio has a real chance to put his experience into practice. However, the family did not yet have enough funds to open their own stores; sales had to be trusted to independent wholesalers. But in 1975, the partners greatly let Amancio down by unexpectedly canceling an order for a large batch of goods.

The factory was threatened with closure, and the family was threatened with ruin. Ortega's solution was simple and effective - he created the first Zara store, where residents of La Coruña could buy fashionable and affordable things. Thus, the sales of products became controlled.

It was from this store that a huge network of boutiques of high-quality and fashionable clothes. Amancio Ortega continued to follow his business policy. Its designers are always up to date with the latest trends in the fashion world. Worthy ideas are brought to life without delay. The pricing policy is democratic, so people have the opportunity to purchase high-quality and fashionable goods at an affordable price. In addition, on store shelves nearby there were things that went well with each other.

Not surprisingly, Zara's chain of stores expanded rapidly. This led to the creation of the company Industria de Diseno Textil SA (abbreviated as Inditex). This event became another success in the Spaniard’s career. Amancio Ortega achieved what he set out to achieve: his company learned to independently create and sell products. New clothing brands have appeared: Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka and Stradivarius.

The number of shops and boutiques is constantly increasing in all countries of the world. Perhaps, due to the expansion of the sales market, the company's economic tactics will change, since its clothes are popular in more than 70 countries.

From the son of a simple employee to the head of a world-famous holding - this was the difficult path of Amancio Ortega. Only thanks to his perseverance, self-confidence and desire to change his life for the better, this man created such a bright career. In 2011, Ortega stepped down as chairman of Inditex. After such glorious deeds, it’s time to rest.

Amancio Ortega Gaona(Spanish) Amancio Ortega Gaona; genus. March 28, 1936, Busdongo, Leon, Spain) - entrepreneur, founder (with ex-wife Rosalia Meroy) and ex-president of the Inditex business group, which owns the textile brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull & Bear, Zara Home, Stradivarius and Uterque; the company owns 5,000 stores in 77 countries. In addition, Ortega invested in real estate in Florida, Madrid, London and Lisbon, the gas industry, tourism and banks. Owns a share in a football league and a show jumping field. At the end of 2009, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation awarded Amancio Ortega the Order of Civil Merit.

In June 2012, he was recognized by Bloomberg as the richest man in Europe with a net worth of more than $39.5 billion. In the latest ranking of the world's richest people, published by Forbes magazine in March 2013, Amancio Ortega took third place with a fortune of $57 billion, moving up two positions compared to the 2012 ranking and displacing investor Warren Buffett from the top three.

Amancio Ortega was born into the family of a railroad worker, his mother worked as a maid. Due to the poverty of his family, Amancio could not even finish high school and at the age of 13 he began working as a messenger in a shirt store. Then in 1950 he was hired to work in a haberdashery store La Maja, where his brother Antonio, sister Pepita and Rosalia Mera, who would later become his first wife, already worked.

When Amancio was fourteen years old, the family moved to La Coruña (Galicia) following his father's transfer there. Here he first worked on corrugating fabrics, then took up drapery and eventually became an apprentice to an Italian fashion designer. The owner of the studio once told the father of the future fashion industry magnate: “You know, he won’t turn out to be a tailor, a tailor should be easy-going and sociable.”.

In the 1960s, Amancio became a manager in one of the stores.

In 1972, at age 37, Amancio opened his own knitting factory, which was called Confecciones GOA (initials backwards).

At first, he and his first wife, Rosalia Mera, sewed robes, nightgowns and lingerie in the living room of their own home.

In 1975, a German partner unexpectedly canceled an order for a large batch of linen, into which Amancio had already invested all his available capital. To save the business, the couple decided to sell clothes themselves and on May 15, 1975, they opened their own store on one of the central streets of La Coruña called Zorba.

The store was originally named after their favorite character Anthony Quinn from the movie Zorba the Greek, but due to registration problems the store had to be immediately renamed Zara.

In 1985, based on the Zara chain of stores, he created the Inditex corporation. In 1986, he broke off relations with his first wife.

The first Zara store abroad appeared only in 1988 in Porto in neighboring Portugal. In 1989, the Zara store appeared in New York, in 1990 - in Paris. And already 10 years after the opening of the first store, Amancio Ortega created a production and trading holding - Industria de Diseno Textil Sociedad Anonima (Inditex), which by the end of 1990 Inditex was second only to the companies Gap (USA) and H&M (Hennes & Mauritz; Sweden).

In 1991, the Pull and Bear chain appeared, in addition, Inditex acquired 65% of the Massimo Dutti group, and five years later this brand completely became the property of Inditex.

In 1998, the Bershka chain of stores was created, specializing in clothing for young women. In 1999 - Stradivarius stores.

In 2001, Inditex held an IPO, selling a 25% stake, raising US$2.3 billion. At the same time, the Oysho trademark appeared for stores specializing in underwear. In the same year, he created the Amancio Ortega Foundation (a private non-profit organization that aims to promote all types of activities in the field of research, education and science).

In 2003, Ortega opened the first Zara store in Russia.

In 2011, Amancio Ortega resigned as chairman of the board of Inditex. In December of the same year, Ortega purchased Torre Picasso, a 43-story skyscraper in Madrid, from Esther Koplowitz for $536 million. He also previously purchased the Epic Residences & Hotel, a 54-story condominium and hotel on the Miami coast.

Family

Amancio has a sister, Josefa (minister of Inditex), and a brother, Antonio (now deceased).

Married for the second time: first wife - Rosalia Mera (until 1986), second - Flora Pérez Marcote (from 2001 to the present).

Has three children: Sandra, Marcos (born with a severe form of congenital disability), Martha (born in 1984; from his second marriage). In February 2012, Marta Ortega Perez (Spanish) Marta Ortega Perez), who works for Inditex, married Spanish equestrian star Sergio Álvarez Moya.

Interests and hobbies

Amancio Ortega enjoys horse riding, cars and painting.

Name: Amancio Ortega Gaona

Age: 81 years old

Place of Birth: Busdongo, Leon, Spain

State: $85 billion (August 2017)

Activity: entrepreneur, founder and ex-president of Inditex company owns 6,750 stores

Family status: married

Amancio Ortega - biography

According to the principles of Amancio Ortega, founder of the Zara fashion empire, wealth does not mean a thirst for fame. That's why the world still knows so little about the man recognized in 2017 as the richest on the planet.

Unlike Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, former tailor Amancio Ortega Gaona managed to build from scratch not a virtual, but a completely material textile empire, consisting of thousands of stores, dozens of brands and millions of “subjects.”

If railroad worker Antonio Ortega had been told that his son would become rich, he would have laughed. There was never much money in the family; four children required support, and the wife cleaned wealthy houses for pennies.

After the birth of the youngest - Amancio - Spain began Civil War. Ortega Sr. became minister of propaganda in the rebellious provinces of Asturias and Leon. Dictator Franco drowned Spain in blood, and the family had to flee to the other end of the country. It was then that Antonio taught his children an iron rule: not to talk too much. Amancio will follow him all his life.

After World War II, the family moved to the port city of La Coruña. They lived very poorly. 10-year-old Amancio forever remembered how the angry owner of a grocery store kicked him and his mother out: she dared to ask for bread and milk on credit. The boy clenched his fists from resentment and shame and swore to himself: he will earn so much money that his loved ones will never need anything...

As soon as the older children grew up, their parents gave them jobs in the studio. 13-year-old Amancio also came there. The owner of the studio once remarked to his father: “The boy cannot be a tailor. The tailor must please the client - talk, smile, joke. But he’s not like that at all.”

At the age of 15, Amancio became an assistant at the La Maja clothing store, where he rose to manager. In his place they took 13-year-old Rosalia Mera. The smart girl understood the young boss perfectly - it is not surprising that the sympathy that arose between them grew into love. In the end, at the suggestion of Rosalia, Ortega founded his own business - the two of them sewed robes and nightgowns. Having made his mark, the 27-year-old businessman registered the company Confecciones GOA with a capital of 2,500 pesetas (20 euros at modern exchange rates). But home production quickly exhausted itself: the buyer wanted large quantities. And Amancio found a way out.

Local women, who were unemployed, willingly took Ortega’s orders. By uniting seamstresses into cooperatives, he created a production base without investment. Then Amancio realized a simple truth: the longer the journey of an item from the seamstress to the store, the higher the costs. Later he came up with another axiom: “We prefer to earn less on each thing, but sell a lot more of them.”

Amancio Ortega - biography of personal life

In 1966, lovers Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera got married. Now they were together leading a common cause to success. It was Rosalia who drew her husband’s attention to the bikini swimsuit, which exploded fashion during the “sexual revolution.” Amancio sketched out the patterns, and soon the first batch hit the shelves. The success was stunning. However, Rosalia came up with not only swimsuits, but also other clothes.

The birth of her daughter Sandra briefly distracted her from her work. Three years later, the couple had a son, Marcos. The father's hopes for an heir collapsed when doctors announced the baby's diagnosis - a severe form of cerebral palsy. It was unimaginably difficult for Amancio to recover from such a blow, and only work gave him consolation. He later founded a charitable foundation dedicated to finding new treatments for cerebral palsy and cancer.

The oil crisis of 1975 led to the fact that the resorts began to lose customers, and Ortega - swimsuit buyers. The partner who ordered a large shipment refused to pick it up. The spouses had no choice but to sell their goods themselves. In the center of La Coruña they found a suitable building where they rented the first floor. Amancio named the store Zorba - after the character in the Hollywood film “Zorba the Greek.” But they failed to obtain the rights to use the name, and the store became known as Zara.

By combining production and sales, Ortega applied the principle of fast fashion - “fast fashion”. While other manufacturers take up to three months from development to the appearance of an item in the store, Zara takes 10-12 days. The company draws ideas not only from designers, but also from the founder. It happens that Ortega calls the design department and says that he saw a great blouse on a stranger. He can send a sketch or photo, but more often he is limited to a description. In just a week, the same blouses with the Zara label will be on sale.

Just 10 years later, the first Zara store opened abroad, in Portugal. And the Ortega spouses combined their assets into the Inditex holding. In 1989, Zara appeared in New York, a year later - in Paris, in 1995 - in Shanghai. The turn came to Moscow only in 2003.

In the early 1990s, Ortega decided to foray into new areas of fashion. For teenagers, Inditex created the Pull and Bear network, for young people - Bershka, for established clients - Massimo Dutti. Then the brands Stradivarius and Oysho appeared on the market, producing underwear.

It is noteworthy that Ortega never spent a lot of money on fashion designers or advertising. While competitors invited Karl Lagerfeld or Stella McCartney, Inditex designers borrowed fashion trends by looking at other people's collections. Of course, competitors were outraged. Thus, the French fashion house Christian Louboutin filed a lawsuit against Zara, claiming that the chain infringed on its trademark.

Zara offered high-heeled shoes with red soles for 100 euros, and Christian Louboutin - for 1000. However, the process did not reveal a winner. At least 11 other designers sued Inditex, but almost all of them were left without satisfaction. Zara's lawyers fought off the attacks, insisting that they were not copying other people's models, but fashion trends.

Ortega himself remained in the shadows for a long time until his business required listing shares on the stock exchange. In 2001, Inditex was valued at $9.7 billion. Ortega immediately became a figure on the Forbes list, but avoided publicity. He wished to continue to live as a recluse in La Coruña. I chose Inditex stores and design department as my main location. He relaxed, enjoying football in the VIP box, raising chickens on his estate or breathing the sea air on his own yacht not far from the shore. Meanwhile, his fortune grew by leaps and bounds. Even after the 2009 crisis, Ortega managed to “grow” the holding by another 45 billion.

But age made itself felt, and Ortega began to think about a successor. It was... 17-year-old saleswoman at the Bershka store in A Coruña, Marta Perez. First, the girl received the position of store director in London. Then she worked in senior positions at Inditex in Shanghai and New York. Not immediately, but the Inditex bosses learned that the career woman was Ortega’s illegitimate daughter from an affair with secretary Flora Perez Marcote (the fact of her birth in 1984 led to Amancio’s divorce from Rosalia). But you can’t return the past, especially since legitimate children could not run a business. Today Martha is the heir to the largest fortune in the world, although her 81-year-old father, who registered his marriage with her mother only in 2001, has no plans to retire yet.

The richest man in Spain, fashion designer, founder and president of Industria de Diseno Textil Sociedad Anonima. Inditex Corporation is the largest retail chain in the world, owning brands such as Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe, with approximately 4,907 stores in 77 countries.

The Western press calls Amancio Ortega the Spanish Sphinx. There are other epithets that are also readily replicated: the man-legend, the man-mystery, the uncrowned king of design. And they are all true - none of them can be considered an exaggeration. Not only because the success formula invented by Ortega, which raised him to the global business Olympus, not only cannot be implemented, but even completely unraveled. He himself is a complete mystery.

In Russia, the name Amancio Ortega seems to be unknown to few people. There should be a few more people who are familiar with the Zara brand. However, the product presented on our market differed from what is sold in more than three thousand Zara stores in 64 countries not only by the scarcity of assortment, but also by the price: in our country it is quite comparable in cost to European haute couture samples. Meanwhile, it is the affordable price with the rapid renewal of super-fashionable models that is the essence of Ortega’s trading philosophy, which elevated him to the ranks of the world business elite. However, what is important here is not so much the idea itself - it, in general, is not new: it was thanks to their focus on the needs of the middle class that more than one billionaire from the famous Forbes list made a fortune, you could read about some of them in the section “Success Stories” . The most difficult thing here is its implementation. Ortega literally hacked the well-functioning scheme for the production of fashionable and cheap clothes: no one had offered such prices and such a rate of turnover of exclusive new clothes before him. And so far no one has succeeded in repeating his experience and the growing expansion of the Inditex concern on the world market.

In March 2011, the American magazine Forbes estimated Amancio Ortega's fortune at $31 billion (21.5 billion euros), placing him in seventh place in its ranking. He became not only the richest Spaniard on the planet, but also the second richest European, second only to the Frenchman Bernard Arnault.

Success Story, Biography of Amancio Ortega

Amancio Ortega was born on March 28, 1936 in the small Spanish town of Leon. His father was a railroad worker, and his mother was a servant. The family was poor, and Ortega did not even finish high school. At the age of thirteen, he began working as a messenger for a fashionable tailor who made clothes for wealthy clients. At the age of 14, Amasio's family moved to A Coruña, where his father got a new job. This is where it started professional activity Amancio Ortega. He worked in crimping fabrics, then took up drapery and eventually became an apprentice to an Italian fashion designer. The little tailor not only did sewing and cutting, he also studied the pricing scheme. And it was then that he began to think about how to reduce the number of markups in such a chain, which was later decided in his Zara clothing empire.

In most cases, for those without education young man from a remote province, the career ceiling could be the position of a foreman or mid-level manager in the sales department. With Amancio, as with all those who independently, and not by birth, became business generals, the case was different. He - and his talent - were cramped within the framework predetermined by fate: especially gifted people, as we have the opportunity to observe from various biographies, really have brains that are structured in a completely different way than the majority. And the accumulated knowledge - and experience - necessarily finds a way out in some way creative solution, in know-how: in entrepreneurship it is no less important than in science.

In the 1960s, Amasio became a manager in one of the stores in the city in which he lived. It was there that he made his next observation. He realized that the market for expensive clothing consumers was too narrow. As an experiment, he purchased inexpensive fabrics in Barcelona and, using the patterns he made, saved significantly on the material. All this resulted in clothes that were not inferior to clothes from the store, but were more economical. His models sold out among local retailers with a bang, so Ortega accumulated start-up capital for starting your own business.

At the age of 27, Amasio and his wife opened a knitting factory called Confecciones Goa (one day he accidentally read his initials from right to left, and he liked the abbreviation GOA so much that he named his company that way).

The main products produced by the factory were bathrobes, nightgowns and lingerie. Once Ortega copied the underwear of one fashionable and insanely expensive brand. Subsequently, it is this philosophy - copying expensive things - that will become the basis for his Zara brand.

The business did not develop rapidly, but in 1975, Ortega’s partner unexpectedly ordered a large batch for the supply of linen. In order to expand its business, the manufacturer had to invest all its available capital in this order, since there were no other customers on the horizon. In the same year, he used the proceeds to open his own store to sell his products. The name of the store was Zara.

The name, by the way, turned out to be very successful - easy to remember and associated with something French (who, if not France, should be oriented towards for anyone who is planning to get into fashionable clothes). By the way, Ortega initially wanted to name his brand Zorba, but could not register it and remade it as Zara.

A key aspect of Zara was selling quality clothing, but at prices that even young people could afford. It was this group of consumers that the owner relied on. The company's credo was described in its first annual report: Zara's mission is “ Democratize the fashion market. We do not support the point of view that fashion is the preserve of the privileged class, and, on the contrary, we offer affordable fashionable clothes for the “street”. But one that is inspired by tastes, desires and lifestyle modern men and women».

10 years after the opening of the first store, the Inditex Group arose, which united all the enterprises providing Zara, and in the late 80s, the “first signs” of the GOA company “fly” outside of Spain - the Zara store was inaugurated in the Portuguese city of Porto. Then Zara begins to conquer more and more heights, opening in Paris, a city that has become a symbol of sophisticated fashion. After this, New York and many other cities around the world “ceased resistance.”

This one-time event was a daring demonstration of the ambitious plans of an unknown entrepreneur from the Spanish province, which the whales of the modeling business could well have ignored. But literally from the first minutes of the sales, the excitement that began left no reason for their equanimity. The assortment exhibited by Ortega attracted attention with its super-fashionable design at very low prices for goods of this class. But he had another “secret weapon” - the turnover of collections in a matter of days: no manufacturer simply could compete with such a pace. And fast fashion from La Coruña set off on a triumphal march around the world.

High rates of production of the latest new products are extremely, perhaps even decisively important in such a sensitive to changing moods and demand type of business as modeling. Here one person can control the entire production process from start to finish - design, production, distribution, sales. That's what Ortega did - he took the whole process into his own hands. As the authoritative Newsweek would later write about the Spanish billionaire - “... this allowed Ortega to gain such power in Spain that he was given the nickname “Terminator.” In a fashion world where trends change depending on Sunday's blockbuster or Madonna's latest video, lack of speed is killer, and no one has speed like Zara."

Amancio Ortega's real breakthrough came in 2001. And this is what happened: he decided to place a quarter of the shares of the Inditex holding on the open market (before that the company was a closed enterprise). The demand turned out to be so great that the stock price immediately soared by 22%, the company's capitalization went off scale for billions, and Ortega himself found himself in the club of the world's super-rich. This is how the same Newsweek describes this event: “ One May morning in the Spanish city of La Coruña, a 65-year-old gentleman left his office and turned on the TV. 15 minutes later, the first public sale of shares of the company, which he founded when he was still a very young man, began... Within the first minutes after the start of trading, the price of shares increased by 26%, despite the general difficult situation on the exchange with the initial sale of shares. 30 minutes after the start of trading, 60% of the shares owned by this gentleman, whose name was Amancio Ortega Gaona, were worth $6 billion, and he became the owner of the third largest fortune in Spain».

At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the Spanish government invited all of the country's largest industrialists to an emergency meeting on the economy. Everyone came except Amancio Ortega. By the way, unlike the Spanish economy, Inditex sales grew by 14% at the height of the crisis.

In January 2011, Amancio Ortega announced that he would soon leave the company and retire. He simply sent a message to all of his 98,000 employees around the world that he would ask Inditex vice-president Pablo Isla to take his place at the head of the empire.

« Dear friends, he wrote, the moment has come when I, with great hope and responsibility, want to propose Pablo Isla to become executive president at the next meeting" Praising his successor's "combination of youth and experience," Ortega recalled that during his five-year term as vice president, Isla, 47, led Zara and other Inditex brands into Asia and opened the online store Zara.com.

Ortega left his post as head of the company and retired on July 19, 2011. However, Jose Louis Nueno, a professor of marketing at a business school in Barcelona, ​​is confident that after Ortega’s resignation, it is unlikely that he will completely retire. " I don't think Mr. Ortega will just play golf. He is interested in a company that has seen store openings reach a rate of one store every 36 hours. He will not leave this job until the end of his days", says Nueno.

Personal and family life Amancio Ortega

It is known that for the time being no one knew anything about Amancio Ortega and everyone was wondering who owns ZARA? After all, he not only never took photographs, but even avoided places where representatives of business circles or the press could be. Amancio himself justified this behavior by the desire to live a normal life: for example, in the mornings to have breakfast with fellow proletarians in a cafe on central square village - there are churros donuts with hot chocolate. As he thought, this grace came to an end: when his company went public in 2001, it became impossible to sit in the shadows. After that, Amancio complained for a long time, almost crying, that the damned stock exchange ruined his whole life - he had to get a driver, bodyguards, change his habits and even - the worst thing - get a damned silk tie, which, however, he never put on.

Ortega Amancio never meets with journalists, never makes public statements. What about journalists - Ortega refused an invitation to a reception with the royal family of Spain. A person is special and unique. This is Amancio Ortega, period - there is no such figure in the world of big business.

Ortega is a kind of antipode to a billionaire. He even dines in the work canteen and never holds banquets or parties. His main place of residence is a factory.

The first staged photograph of the Spanish billionaire appeared in newspapers only in the early 2000s, when the number of his stores numbered in the thousands, and Ortega himself was over sixty. " I want the only people to recognize me on the street to be my family, friends and colleagues“, Ortega said to the journalist, who was the only one who managed to get close to him for literally ten seconds and ask one question that was of interest to everyone.

No matter how little is known about Amancio Ortega, there is still some information available. To one who does not advertise his personal life, it is difficult for a modern tycoon to hide information about his capital and real estate. The latter includes luxury houses, apartments and hotels in Madrid, Paris, London, Lisbon, Miami. Ortega rents out some of them, but he retained some of them, although it is not clear why, in fact, if he leaves his hometown of La Coruña in northern Spain on rare occasions and only for a short period of time.

Amancio Ortega is a tough leader and a kind person. He willingly gives money to his workers if he finds out that someone is in dire need, and maintains various charitable foundations - to help disabled children, for development scientific research in the field of medicine, gives money for education and so on. He is interested in painting and draws himself.

The only “billionaire prank” that the owner of Zara allowed himself was a private Falcon 900 jet and his own racetrack. Ortega has a real passion for horses as well as football. By the way, according to Forbes, commercial interests Ortega extends beyond the fashion industry; he has investments in football, the oil and gas sector and tourism.

Amancio Ortega also keeps his personal life secret, which, apparently, is by no means devoid of drama and turmoil. In any case, in 1986, he divorced his first wife Rosalia - the same one with whom they started the business together and with whom Amancio has two sons - Sandra and Marco (after long wanderings on the Internet, I had difficulty finding them on one of the Spanish sites) . The Ortega spouses separated, apparently peacefully. Rosalia got a 6.7% stake in Inditex, where she runs a shoe company. From Amancio’s second marriage - with Flora Perez Marcote - daughter Marta, she is already 28 years old. All of them - former and current wives, their children, as well as many other relatives - are shareholders of the family corporation. But Ortega intends to hand over the rule of his empire to Marta.

Although Inditex is now headed by Pablo Isle, experts are confident that someday his place in the corporation will be taken by the tycoon’s daughter, Marta. The girl already works in her father’s company, but, contrary to established practice, she started not on the board of directors, but as a clerk in a Bershka store in London. Then, after working in Barcelona and Shanghai, Martha almost reached the management of the Inditex branch in the Spanish town of Arteixo.

The secrets of Amancio Ortega's success

The formula for success was born in the head of Amancio Ortega while he was working as a manager in one of the stores - production, wholesale and retail trade should be concentrated in the hands of one owner, which makes it possible to keep low prices attractive to customers.

Well, in one hand, well, complete control - so what? Why is the same thing not available to other, also unskilled, fashion clothing manufacturers? The answer contains just the answer: Ortega placed all his orders primarily with homeworkers in his own province. In other words, rejecting the established trend in the world, when manufacturers of all goods - from toys to clothing - rushed to Asian countries and Latin America in search of cheap labor, he came up with and implemented a different model: maximum proximity to the place of production, albeit with losses due to higher wages.

Wall Street Analysts' View: " Ortega's model of fast fashion resists the seemingly limitless force of globalization. As industrialists continue to seek the cheapest labor in countries like Cambodia or Sri Lanka or else be overtaken by competitors, Ortega emerges to demonstrate that flexibility in the market and the absence of large inventories can be more important than cheap labor . This is a new approach that could reverse the process of “exodus” of production from the West... By bringing production closer to distribution, Ortega was years ahead of his competitors».

What does this model provide in practice? Here's what. Focused solely on finding the lowest costs and cheapest labor, most clothing manufacturers are now forced to operate in a complex global production network: buying fabric in one country, dyeing it in another, embroidering in a third, and making, say, a shirt in a fourth using subcontractors at every stage of work. As a result, it takes them up to 8 months to complete the cycle from developing an idea to receiving the item in the store.

In Ortega's companies, and today this is not only Zara, but seven more independent divisions, each with its own specialization - from lingerie to home furnishings - the entire cycle takes much less time. In just ten days, a skirt designed by the Zara design team in A Coruña will reach a Zara store in Paris, Qatar or Tokyo - 12 times faster than competitors. Reducing deadlines zara official website has the ability to ship smaller batches of a wider variety of products more frequently. Thus, the company can quickly discontinue items that sell poorly, avoiding the need for frequent inventories and sales, which are a regular cause of losses for other manufacturers. The company makes its garments in Spain and Portugal and spends 15% more than manufacturers in China, largely due to higher labor costs. But this difference is compensated many times over by reducing inventory costs and quickly tracking fashion trends.

But this last one needs to be said in a little more detail, because, no matter how important the rapid change of collections in stores is, first of all, the products themselves must be attractive to the buyer. And Zara has already become famous for its stylish clothes with soft Italian and Spanish accents. Moreover, the popularity of Zara clothing is so high that it has given rise to an ironic saying in the rest of Europe: “ Soon we'll all look a little Spanish».

To win the sympathy of customers, Ortega is forced to constantly be on the cutting edge of fashion. And he does it in a very witty way. Representatives of the company regularly attend ready-to-wear shows in Paris, New York, London and Milan, quickly taking sketches or digital snapshots as models come down the runway - and immediately sending them to the head office in A Coruña. And there are already designers on hand (there are over 200 of them in the corporation, more than in any other similar company). The finished patterns are sent to a sewing factory or to women homeworkers from surrounding towns and villages, who sew quickly and efficiently, while their work is quite cheap - more expensive, of course, than in third world countries, but incomparably less than what is provided for by European standards. And everything - a new batch, certainly small - was sent to Zara stores around the world in a matter of days, where customers loyal to the brand are already waiting. So much so that selling out the entire collection in one day is not uncommon. However, no model, even one in demand, can be on sale for more than four weeks. Product updates in Zara stores usually happen twice a week, that is, more than 100 times a year. And each time the outlet receives up to 200 new styles. For example, the 2010 collection consisted of 30 thousand models!!! It would be strange if such a business philosophy failed.

The tactics of adapting or developing other people’s ideas, of course, cannot protect the tycoon from the reproaches of competitors. Many of them are unhappy that analogues of their expensive clothes appear in Zara stores earlier and cheaper than their own. " We spend a fortune designing a new style and then Zara comes and takes it for free.“This is a very common complaint among Italian fashion designers (it is Italian fashion that most often becomes an object of imitation). But Zara representatives have their own arguments: “ We don't copy anything, that would be too rude. We just use some general ideas, but always in our own way».

However, competitors' ideas are not the only source of information for Zara designers. Each store of the company sends a special report daily to La Coruña, which indicates the most frequent wishes of customers regarding clothing styles. This data can be accessed through the corporate intranet in real time. At the same time, Zara has developed a special dictionary of terms, which allows you to formalize incoming information and present it in a form that is clear to everyone. By reading the briefs, each designer understands exactly what the retailer wants to say and what ideas should be brought to life.

The Spanish tycoon also has other very valuable ideas. One of them is directly related to the main idea that we have already talked about - the production of products in small batches - thus eliminating the need for spacious warehouse space, which, accordingly, reduces inventory costs. The second is a practical refusal to spend on advertising: at Inditex they do not exceed 0.3% of turnover. He believes that what we call gypsy mail or word of mouth is much more reliable - that is, information transmitted from mouth to mouth. And he's probably right. Among women, one has to admit, this is indeed the most effective method. But at the same time, its special feature is shop windows, a real business card Zara. It’s hard to imagine how colorful and elegant, literally mesmerizing - you can’t take your eyes off it - an ordinary shop window can be. But perhaps a statement from a fashion market expert, and one as famous as Dominico de Sol from Gucci, can give some insight: “ I've always been amazed highest level the art with which Inditex designers decorate their stores, display windows and stands. Elegance and originality are emphasized by unique lighting».

Compliments like these are the fruits of hard research. In the underground floors of the Inditex headquarters in La Coruña, in a specially darkened room, an improvised display case with multiple light sources is installed: this is a kind of laboratory that allows specialists to most effectively modulate and design store windows. Therefore, absolutely always - both at night and on foggy mornings - Amancio Ortega's stores look perfect, and the windows are updated every month.

Amancio Ortega has his own philosophy of recruiting. He is never in a hurry to hire new people, but he fires slackers very quickly. After all, according to him, the image of an enterprise is created by the people who work for it. Having an unsuitable employee at an enterprise is an unaffordable luxury, because he harms the common cause.

« Amancio Ortega is a man in whom personal qualities are inseparable from entrepreneurial spirit. He doesn't have a degree, but he has super intelligence. If he sets a goal, he will achieve it“says journalist Covadonga O’Shea, a former editor of Telva magazine, who has known Ortega since he was 18 and even wrote his biography This is Amancio Ortega, the man who created Zara.”

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