Amancio Ortega recently took first place in the list of the richest people in the world, ahead of Bill Gates by 5 million. He is the founder and head of the Zara brand, which has been considered one of the symbols of Spain for many years. The company continues to increase profits and develop. Amancio is known for the fact that, despite his position and wealth, he practically does not communicate with journalists, does not give interviews, and is not photographed. How did Amancio Ortega achieve success?

Childhood and development of Amancio Ortega

Not much is known about the founder of Zara. This is due to the fact that he very rarely communicates with journalists. But even this communication is limited to the topic of the development of the company and his business, and he does not answer questions about his personal life. Until 2011, there were practically no mentions of Amancio in the press, despite the fact that he was already on the lists richest people world with a fortune at that time of 21.5 billion dollars. At some point, many experts and journalists themselves generally doubted that Amancio Ortega was a real person.

Interest in the person of Amancio Ortega grew after he became the richest man in the world for two days in 2012, but after that he again lost his position to Bill Gates. And again, even after such success, the billionaire did not talk about his life. And at that time he was already 75 years old. At the same time, the man did not attend social events or fashion shows, which seems impossible, given that he founded a leading retail chain that produces clothing and accessories.

Nevertheless, a book was published in 2017“The Zara Phenomenon,” written by Ortega’s friend Covadonga O’Shea. In addition to the history of the development of his company, Amancio also shared his childhood memories, secrets of success and other facts about his personal life.

Independent child

Like many modern billionaires, Amancio was not born and raised in a wealthy family. In 1936, in a village whose population did not exceed 60 people, a third child, Amancio Ortega, was born into the family of a railroad worker and a maid. He had a brother Antonio and a sister Pepita. The family was very poor, so at the age of 13 he had to leave school and go to work in a shirt store.

“My mother and I went to the grocery store, and when she and the seller left behind the counter, I heard the man tell her, “I’m very sorry, but I can no longer lend you food.” That day I realized how difficult it was for parents and decided that I needed to bring money to the family, and not just use it.” – says Amancio.

He served as a messenger and laborer in the store for several years. He carried out any tasks with full responsibility and seriousness. Since childhood, Ortega has been distinguished by independence and perseverance, and his parents instilled in him a sense of pride in himself and his work, regardless of what he did.

15 year old manager

After the village saw how hardworking he is, Amancio decides to go to work at the more expensive La Maja store. His brother and sister were already working there. In just a few months, young Ortega was promoted to the position of manager, and Rosalia Meru Goinchena was hired in his place. This girl two years later became the first wife of the future billionaire.

During his time working in this haberdashery, Amancio not only gained experience, but also began to delve into the intricacies of working with fabrics. He constantly studied cutting and sewing, the use of this or that material, the principles of creating the clothes themselves, and also learned in detail all the features of expensive brands. In addition, the young manager constantly communicated with people, customers, so he knew what exactly they were looking for and wanted to see.

First business and the birth of the Zara brand

At the age of 17, Amancio Ortega left work to start his own business - the production of children's robes and underwear. The advantage of his products was that they were made from high-quality but inexpensive fabric. Moreover, most of the clothes were copies of expensive brands, and the price was affordable for almost everyone. In addition, thanks to communication with people, Amancio already had a fairly large network for selling goods. These operating principles formed the basis of his future company Zara.

The starting capital of Amancio's business was 20 euros, which was quite a large amount at that time. He saved this money from wages for several years. The company was named GOA Confessiones, which is a combination of Ortega's initials.

The businessman’s plans were to expand production, but there were practically no people in the village who could work. Almost all the men went to the only profitable place of work - to fish at sea, and the women looked after the children at this time. It was women who Amancio began to hire, creating large cooperatives.

Ortega found a supplier of fabrics and also entered into an agreement with buyers who took the goods to stores in bulk. Most women have been involved in cutting and sewing all their lives, so they were almost professionals. Amancio would bring an example of clothing from some famous brand, and they would copy it.

Zara store opening

After 10 years, Ortega has already become one of the most successful and profitable enterprises in the region. In 1970, the company was already in full swing hiring designers who created unique clothes and accessories. Another 5 years later, he opened his first Zara store, which sold the company's clothing.

In 1985, Ortega launched the Inditex group from the GOA Confessiones enterprise, which includes Zara. Today Inditex with a huge amount brands is one of the largest and most successful companies in the fashion industry.

Secrets of fast fashion success

The secret to the success of Zara and Amancio Ortega is that they came up with a unique development strategy that is completely different from the way other businesses operate. For example, most fashion houses create original designs, but the production itself is transferred to Asia or other countries where labor is not so expensive. Amancio said that Zara will work only within the company itself. The same goes for large quantity other areas - sales, product storage, delivery and more. Zara does not work with suppliers, they have their own departments that create clothes from the moment they purchase the fabric until they hand it over to the user . This process is called “fast fashion,” which is more appropriate for small regional companies that produce clothing for mass use rather than branded goods.

In addition, speed is of particular importance to Zara. From the creation of a new model to its sale should take no more than 2 weeks, while popular fashion houses can drag out the process for months. In addition, the company does not produce huge volumes of products. A week after the release of a new series, half the store shelves may remain empty. The essence of the development model is that potential customers will visit stores more often and will be more interested in new products. And it works, because one person visits Zara on average 17 times a year, while popular brand stores visit 4.

A few years after the opening of the first point of sale, Zara stores began to be launched in major cities around the world. Today they are considered one of the fastest growing and most productive.

Amancio Ortega – interesting facts

• Ortega was married twice: the first time to Rosalia, whom he knew from childhood, and the second time to Flora Perez Market.
• He has three children: Sandra and Marcos from his first marriage, and also has a daughter, Marta, who was born from Flora before he divorced Rosalia.
• Many Zara clothing models are almost copies of other famous brands. Amancio himself says that they analyze fashion trends and display them in their products.
• Christian Louboutin unsuccessfully sued Inditex in 2008 because they produced red platform high heels.
• More than 11 designers have so far accused Ortega of plagiarism.
• Amancio enjoys football, equestrian sports, horseback riding and raising chickens.
• Amancio's daughter Marta is considered the most likely candidate to become the head and owner of Inditex. She started working in the company from the most modest positions, but gradually developed, studied, and studied this area.
• Ortega owns a Falcon 900 private jet.
• The billionaire invests in real estate around the world, as well as in the tourism business and the oil and gas industry.
• He has the Spanish Medal for Civil Merit.

Amancio Ortega's net worth today is 84.4 billion. On August 31, he overtook Bill Gates in wealth because he transferred 4.5 billion of his personal funds to a charitable foundation.

The richest man in the world. The site's observer studied the history of the founder of the Zara chain and the Inditex group of companies - the largest organization in the field fashionable clothes.

Amancio Ortega

Amancio's childhood was difficult. The salaries of his parents, a railway worker and a maid, were barely enough to live on; they had to constantly borrow. At the age of 12, Amancio realized that this could not continue for long, and he had to help his family.

In 1950, they had to move from the Spanish city of Busdongo to A Coruña, where his father got a new job. In La Coruña, Ortega began working as a messenger at the local Gala shirt store, which is still open today in the same place. While working at Gala, Amancio learned to sew clothes by hand. A few years later, Amancio got a job as a sales assistant at the La Maja haberdashery, where his brother and sister already worked. In the 60s, he became a manager in one of the city’s stores, and his future wife, 16-year-old Rosalia Mera, took the place of assistant.

Back in the early 60s, Amancio and his wife sewed robes, nightgowns and underwear themselves in a small workshop. By 1972, Amancio had accumulated ideas about running a clothing business, and he and his brother organized their own GOA factory.

There was a high level of unemployment in La Coruña, men worked at sea, leaving their wives to survive for a long time in difficult conditions. Therefore, Ortega was able to attract thousands of women to his factory. Despite the rather low salary, many agreed, because it was the only possibility earn money. The materials for sewing were brought from Barcelona on their own, thus cutting out intermediaries.

In 1975, an incident occurred with a partner - an order for a large batch of linen was canceled. Almost all available funds were invested in sewing this order. To save the business, Ortega decided to open his own store in La Coruña. The name "Zorba" had to be abandoned due to registration problems. This is how the first Zara store appeared.

In the late 70s and until the 90s, Zara stores from Galicia spread throughout Spain. In 1985, Ortega founded the company Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil Sociedad Anónima), all Zara stores were united into a network, which became a subsidiary of Inditex. Things went well, and in 1988 Zara expanded beyond the country. First, a store opened in Portugal, in Porto. A year later, Zara appeared in New York, and a year later - in Paris.

Swimming against the current, Amancio Ortega manages to overtake everyone

Ortega's main ideas have always been relevance, speed and complete control at all stages - from searching for ideas to selling in his stores. These principles still form the basis of Zara.

Products in stores are updated every two weeks, delivery to warehouses must occur within 48 hours. It was precisely this restriction that had to be established during the urgent opening of the first store; Ortega decided to make this rule permanent.

With a very short product renewal cycle, a variety of small batches are brought to stores, which are guaranteed to sell. And if some things are not in demand, they are quickly replaced with more popular ones. On average, it takes 10 days from design development to item appearance in the store. Therefore, tens of thousands of clothing models change in the corporation’s stores every year, and during this time people visit them much more often than competitors’ stores.

Inditex headquarters in Arteixo

Relevance and speed go hand in hand for Ortega. Even at the beginning of the journey, when the company produced bathrobes, the most fashionable and expensive solutions at that time served as a guideline. This approach still works today, but on a different level.

At Inditex's military-secure headquarters in A Coruña, every day hundreds of designers and analysts track the latest fashion trends in real time. different regions. Sales and customer requests in stores, opinions of bloggers and interesting clothing options on the streets of cities around the world are taken into account.

In-store POS systems allow you to continually collect data about your customers' interests. Previously, company representatives attended fashion shows, immediately transmitting sketches to the designers' headquarters. Zara was often accused of direct copying, especially by Italian designers, but the company rejected all accusations of plagiarism, pointing out that it uses general ideas and trends in its clothes. With the advancement of technology, this way of searching for ideas is no longer necessary.

Inditex Data Center

The company spends no more than 0.3 percent of revenue on promotion, while its competitors spend much more on advertising purposes. In addition, Inditex does not attract famous designers to develop collections. The corporation’s brands are often included in the “fast fashion” category, which the company does not agree with.

This is not our approach at all, we take care of every item, every collection, coordination and production processes

Pablo Isla, President of Inditex

Designers follow the popularity of color schemes and materials, paying attention to individual elements. Constant monitoring is also carried out social networks. Every day, at least 3 new models and patterns are created, which are immediately sent to factories, the most suitable performers are selected, who immediately begin sewing the order.

The most complex models are sewn in Spain, Portugal and Brazil, while simpler ones are sent to factories in Bangladesh, Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, India and China. Thanks to small batches and production of some goods nearby in Spain, the company’s costs for accounting and storage of goods can be reduced compared to competitors.

Test store layout

Inditex is especially proud of its logistics department. A huge building is located opposite their headquarters. It is there that supplies flock from all over the world. The department operates at great speed, delivering garments to the US and Europe within 24 hours and 48 hours to Asia and South America.

At Inditex headquarters, full-size mock-ups of stores are being assembled for testing. They serve as exact replicas of real stores, with clothes, music, cash registers, only without customers. To make the most efficient use of materials, designers select the most suitable cutting options in special programs.

The company also strictly monitors the amount of harmful substances emitted into the atmosphere, so in its work it uses production optimization systems, which also reduces costs. The company also tries to introduce less harmful production methods in its factories, but Inditex owns only a small number of these factories.

Previously, Ortega himself called his stores every day in order to constantly be aware of what was happening, today this is done with the help of analytics tools. The founder instilled the desire to constantly monitor the needs of customers from the very beginning of the company. The speed with which designers can update products in stores is amazing; competitors take tens of times longer to do this.

In parallel with the development of Zara, Massimo Dutti joined Inditex, buying out 100 percent of the company, and opened new chains - Pull and Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, Tempe, Uterque and Lefties. The company went public in 2001 at a valuation of $8 billion.

At the moment, Inditex is the largest group of companies in the fashion market, with more than 6,777 stores in 88 countries, employing 141,192 people. While difficult economic conditions and high unemployment rates persist in Spain, Ortega's corporation continues to grow at a rapid pace and show positive results. In the first half of 2015, Inditex reported revenues of €9.42 billion and income of €1.16 billion, up 26 percent from the same period last year. The company is expanding particularly intensively in China and plans to establish a second focal point for Asia. Every day one new Inditex store opens around the world.

Amancio Ortega is a rather secretive person and very rarely appears in public. In his entire life, the richest Spaniard gave only 3 interviews. It is known that Ortega prefers a simple lifestyle, spending most of his time in Spain.

In 2011, he left his post as president of Inditex, handing it over to Pablo Isla, but owns a controlling stake of 59 percent and still advises employees, taking part in design development. He wears the same set of clothes as a uniform and can have lunch at the diner with the company employees. Ortega is ready to communicate with employees at any level, asking for the opinions of everyone, not just top managers, and he has never had a separate office. Swimming against the current, Amancio Ortega manages to overtake everyone.

Amancio Ortega Gaona born on March 28, 1936 in Spain in the village of Buzdongo de Arbaz in the province of Leon - founder and president of the Zara fashion empire. In 2010-2011, according to the magazine's ranking, he owned the ninth largest fortune in the world, $25.0 billion.

At the age of 14, he began working as a delivery boy in a shirt store. Then he is hired to work at the La Maja haberdashery store, where his brother Antonio, sister Pepita and Rosalia Mera already worked. At La Maja he gained his first but deep knowledge in the field of fabrics, threads, cutting and sewing.

U Amancio Ortega an idea arises to establish the production, distribution and sale of children's dressing gowns, without intermediaries, which made it possible to sell products at a lower price. Later, this idea formed the basis of the philosophy of the Zara empire. The company GOA (Amancio's initials backwards) began to prosper and expand. On May 15, 1975, the first Zara store opened on one of the central streets of A Coruña. Amancio wanted to call his future empire the name "Zorba", but problems arose during its registration, as a result of which "Zara" appeared.

New GOA stores appeared one after another, and in 1985 the Inditex group was created, uniting all the enterprises that worked for Zara. In 1988, Zara crossed the borders of Spain. A store under this name opened in Porto, Portugal. In 1989, Zara appeared in New York, in 1990 in Paris. In 1991, the Pull and Bear distribution network was born, in addition, Inditex acquired 65% of the Massimo Tutti group, and five years later this brand became completely the property of Inditex.

In 1998, the Bershka chain of stores was born, specializing in clothing for young women. Another year later, Stradivarius stores become the fifth distributor of the fashion empire chain Amancio Ortega. Another network appeared in 2001 - Oysho stores, specializing in underwear. In the same year, Inditex was successfully listed on the stock exchange. In 2003, the first Zara Home stores opened. The eighth distributor of the network was the Kiddy's Class/Skhuaban brand.

The Inditex group has stores in 64 countries, their number exceeds 3,150. An average of 450 new stores are opened every day per year. There are 1,616 points of sale of Inditex products in Spain, 290 of which bear the Zara name. Outside of Spain, Italy (122 stores, of which 47 are Zara), Russia (31/13), France (149/98), Great Britain (64/50), Japan (27/27) are of particular interest to Inditex. ), China (8/8).

This growth rate of the Inditex group allowed it to become the second knitwear company in the world in terms of the number of points of sale, ahead of the American Gap group. Only the Italian Benetton with 5,000 stores is ahead, but most of of which are not the property of the company, but are used by franchising. The secret of such success of the Zara empire, which is the key brand of the Inditex group, lies in flexibility and instant reaction on changes and fashion trends, in the work of all group structures in the interests of points of sale of products and the strategic location of stores on busy city streets. Inditex deliberately does not resort to a franchising system, as this would negatively affect the prompt distribution of products, which is the key to the group’s commercial success.

Despite the fact that Zara is a well-known brand all over the world, until recently, few people knew its creator and owner even in Spain. He lives in a two-story mansion in A Coruña in the Salaeta microdistrict, not far from Orsan beach, and among his “whims” one can name only a private racetrack on Cape Finisterre and a Falcon 900 plane, which he intends to exchange for another. In the middle of the week Amancio Ortega eats in a common canteen with his employees and, despite the fact that he dresses half of Spain and led a real revolution in the world of fashion, he is not particularly elegant.

The Foundation was created in 2001 "Amancio Ortega", whose activities are aimed at holding cultural events, scientific research, and improving the education system.

The fashion brand Zara is as much a symbol of Spain as bullfighting or paella. Its founder Amancio Ortega– the richest Spaniard on the planet handed over the reins of the company to his deputy and retired. ♌

Catching Goldfish on the Internet

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 was this philosophy - copying expensive things - that would 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: “ On a 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 stock 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, nevertheless, some information is still 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, supports various charities– 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 Zara owner 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 couple 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, Marta 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 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 A 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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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 of 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.

First successes

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.

Interesting fact. 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. 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.

Interesting fact. 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.

Interesting fact. 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 deliver clothes of new designs to stores 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 Marta. Today, Marta is the head of one of the Spanish branches of Inditex.

The entire Ortega family is 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. He spends most of his time in A Coruña, although he owns luxury houses and hotels in many countries around the world. Amancio Ortega maintains charitable foundations that help in different areas:

• 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.

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