Amancio Ortega Gaona is a renowned businessman, founder and ex-president of Inditex. He was awarded the Order of Civil Merit by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Amancio Ortega has become a clear example of how hard work can achieve everything from scratch. His company owns nearly seven thousand stores in nearly ninety countries around the world. He invested in real estate, tourism, banks, the gas industry of the major powers, became the owner of a stake in the football league, a show jumping field.
A difficult path to a dream
Ortega Gona is recognized as one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world. However, before his appearance on the pages of Forbes, the businessman had to go through a thorny path.
The biography of the owner of the world famous brand "Zara" began in the Spanish Busdongo in 1936. There, on March 28, Amancio Ortega was born into a family of workers. Father worked on the railroad, mother was a servant.
To help the family, the future businessman gave up education, starting to work as a messenger in a clothing store at the age of thirteen. At fourteen, the teenager moved to the La Maja store, where his sister and brother worked. Here he met his future wife Rosalia Mera. In a new place, Amancio got acquainted with the basics of the sewing business, learned the basics of cutting and sewing, and began to think about his own business.
After a trip to La Coruña in connection with the transfer of the head of the family, the future fashion designer began to study the shirring and draping of fabrics. The success was quickly noticed by the management. The talented employee was assigned an apprenticeship to a local designer. The owner of the atelier, where Amancio worked hard night and day, assured the boy's parents that their son's tailor was useless. The reason for this verdict was the young man's extreme lack of communication. But the plans of fate did not depend on the conclusions of others.
In 1960, Amancio, who turned twenty-four, became a store manager. After a couple of years, he knew all the intricacies of the profession, had the amount to make his dreams come true. By this time, the future businessman realized that the market for expensive clothes is extremely small. Ortega decided to fix the situation. He bought inexpensive fabrics, sewed a limited collection according to his own patterns and sketches.
Realization and flourishing of business
The result was overwhelming. The models looked great, worn great, and cost an order of magnitude cheaper than branded ones. After the first batch was sold, the aspiring entrepreneur invested in the business by opening a knitwear factory.
By that time, Amancio had become the husband of his chosen one Rosalia. Things were going well. The couple produced nightwear and lingerie, sewing in the living room of the businessmen's house. The products were sold through large retail chains.
In 1975, the measured course of affairs was interrupted. The created batch was not sold to the customer for the first time. Since a significant part of the finances was invested in tailoring, the entrepreneurs decided to start selling the collection on their own. This is how the first Zara store appeared on the busy street of La Coruña. Things went well from the start. The department has become an integral part of the shopping center.
In 1985, the Inditex Corporation was founded. Then Ortega entered the international arena. His "Zara" appeared in Portugal in 1988, a year later the brand conquered New York. On the eve of the millennium, the corporation was gaining momentum, and by the nineties the Bershka, Stradivarius and Pull and Bear chains appeared. Amancio's head was not spinning from the success. The entrepreneur made them an excuse to find new ideas for creativity. In 2001, under his leadership, the Oysho trademark was created. All products were sold exclusively through lingerie stores.
Ortega chose an affordable cost and constant updating of the assortment as the basis of his strategy. The tactics were surprisingly simple and surprisingly effective. The entrepreneur confirmed the opinion that both retail and wholesale can run in parallel, and one person should be in charge of the processes.
This ensured that budget prices were maintained and profits were consistent. Ortega's business model is taught in schools for entrepreneurs. Amancio managed to realize his dream by creating his own formula for success in the field of tailoring. The main components were budget prices, responsiveness to the slightest nuances in trend changes and a couple of steps ahead of all competitors.
Family and business
First wife Rosalia Mera became a business partner. They met when the girl worked as a seller in a haberdashery store, where a teenager Amancio came to work. Together they went through all the stages of business formation. However, in 1988, the couple broke up.
Fra Perez Marcore became the new wife of the businessman. They got married in 2001. The family has three children, Sandra, Marcos and Marta. In February 2012, the eldest daughter, Marta, married the famous rider Sergio Alvarez Moya. The descendant of Amancio works in his brainchild "Inditex".
Ortega is recognized as the wealthiest man in Spain. He officially retired. He left the post of managing director of "Inditex" in 2011. The ex-entrepreneur enjoys life, he refuses to communicate with the press. On the other hand, using the capital created, it purchases skyscrapers, racetracks, hotels, airplanes and yachts.
The businessman switched to investing. He prefers deposits in the tourism and banking sectors, not forgetting about real estate and the gas industry. The entrepreneur became interested in horse riding and raising chickens on vacation.
Amancio's fortune is constantly growing. He topped the Forbes ranking of the richest people in the world.
