Amancio Ortega Gaona Biography

1. AMANCIO ORTEGA GAONA BIOGRAPHY: SUCCESS STORY OF ZARA FOUNDER

In this success story, we are going to share Amancio Ortega Gaona biography, the founder of the
Inditex Group, which includes prêt-à-porter fashion chains Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull &
Bear, and Stradivarius. The extraordinary
financial results of the clothing chains
mentioned led to Forbes ranking Amancio
Ortega to be the richest person in the world as
to October 2015, ahead of Bill Gates, the total
net worth of American billionaire being USD
$78.6 billion. Born into poverty, Ortega
Gaona has accumulated enormous wealth,
modesty, and openness remaining his main
personality traits. Known for having been
publicists’ mystery for decades, Amancio Ortega is a true media nightmare, as neither the
Spain’s richest man nor any of his relatives have ever given public interviews.

Early Life
Born on March 28, 1936 (the beginning of the Civil War in Spain) in Busdongo de Arbas, a
small village with less than 100 citizens located in the northern Spanish region León, Amancio
Ortega Gaona was the youngest of four other children. Being extremely poor, the Ortega family
soon moved to La Coruña surviving due to Amancio father’s job at the local railway station.
They lived in a beggarly house at the railway workers’ quarters. His mother employed as a
housemaid, Amancio heard her pleading for credit at local stores, unable to afford essential
items, which made him leave school and start working at the age of 14. Amancio Ortega’s first
job was a shop assistant at a local company, called Gala, where he learned to make clothes by
hands. Frozen in time, Gala, a conventional shirts maker, is still active and open on one of La
Coruña’s downtown corners. Selling traditional shirts, caps and cardigans, José Martínez, who
inherited the Gala business from his father, has recently reported that the visitors never buy, they
simply ask about his youth friend, Amancio.

Working hard at his teens, Amancio Ortega enjoyed riding his bicycle around the town,
whenever he had free time. His brilliant business idea could have come during one of such rides
Ortega realized that to earn good money, one should give customers what they want. At the age
of 16, Amancio Ortega was pondering on how to figure out potential client desires and, what is
even more important, meet that demand. In the 1950s, Spanish Galicia region was a perfect spot
for his business plan: poor job alternatives in combination with numerous single women who
could sew pretty good. Ortega started to organize women into sewing cooperatives. The product
line included: lingerie, babywear, and nightgowns. Ex-employees of the sewing cooperatives ran
by Ortega shared with media how thrilled the Galicia ladies were to get that job with great
conditions, and how excited they were to see their boss being very close to the workers.

Amancio Ortega Gaona founded his first company in 1963,
having gained ten years of managing sewing cooperatives
experience. He called it ‘Confecciones GOA,' his initials if
to read backward. The founder of the bathing robes
business organized GOA into a family company, Amancio
running the fashion, Antonio (his brother) heading the
commercial issues, Josefa (his sister) bookkeeping the
business matters, and Rosalia Mera (whom he would later
marry) performing as his business partner.

2. Known to Be an Incognito
The private life of Amancio Ortega is terra incognita. Known to be publicity discreet, Amancio
Ortega spends millions of dollars to protect the privacy of his life. That is the reason of no one
being aware of Ortega’s first marriage date. However, known to be his first business partner, it
was Rosalia Mera, who became Ortega’s first wife. The married couple never appeared together
in public; nor did they let their two children be pictured by intrusive paparazzi. Their clothing
business was the only affair they were busy with. Together with Rosalina Mera, Amancio Ortega
integrated GOA into Inditex, the holding group of a number of popular brands. Founded in 1985
and floated onto the stock exchange in 2001, Inditex group, a Spanish clothing seller, owns Zara,
Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, and Bershka brands.

However, in 1986 Amancio Ortega divorced Rosalina Mera (28 January 1944 – 15 August
2013). His second wife, Flora Pérez
Marcote, is 18 years younger than Amancio.
Used to be one of the workers of Ortega’s
company, currently she holds a board
position at Inditex. Being in her early 30s,
Marta, Ortega’s daughter from Flora Pérez, is
considered to be his future successor. Marta
is very close to her farther; similar to
Ortega’s experience, she has undergone her
professional training at Inditex, starting from
the lowest level of a store employee. Along
with the career similarities, Amancio Ortega
and Marta share horse riding hobby, the
loving farther purchased an equestrian center
in Galicia, Spain.

It is a known fact that the overall amount of
pictures with Amancio Ortega, who has been
avoiding the limelight during his whole life,
cannot amount even 200 ones. Zara official
news corporation has presented most of them,
and the other photographs of Amancio
Ortega Gaona, as well as cheeseparing pieces
of information, have been developed either
by Covadonga O'Shea or by Xabier R. Blanco. The latest being a local Spanish journalist who
has been tracking Amancio Ortega’s career; O’Shea is Ortega’s lifelong friend, she runs a
fashion school at the University of Navarra, Madrid. Xabier Blanco
and Jesús Salgado have co-authored Ortega’s non-official
biography, the book called “Amancio Ortega: From Zero to Zara”
(2004). However, Covadonga O’Shea has been granted the right to
develop Ortega’s official biography. On October 21, 2008, the book
was published in the Spanish language under the title “Así es
Amancio Ortega, el hombre que creó Zara”. In March 2012, the book
was published in English language under the title The Man from
Zara: The Story of the Genius Behind the Inditex Group.

Lifestyle
In 30 years since Inditex was founded, Amancio Ortega has become
fast fashion mogul. According to Forbes, Amancio Ortega’s total net
worth is estimated at $66.4 billion as of December 2015. He is so

3. successful due to his distinctive personality traits, which include mind flexibility, workaholism,
and profound self-confidence.

Amancio Ortega’s flexibility of mind has been proven by his pioneering fast fashion clothing
business. Ortega’s progressive ideas made it possible to respond to consumer demand quickly,
developing ready-to-wear fashion clothing (instead of designing haute couture collections),
which in turn made Zara a globalizer with its 1,700 storefronts in 86 countries. According to the
legend, Amancio Ortega's habit is to behold young people lifestyles to reproduce relevant
innovative design at Zara. They say Ortega might see a motor biker at traffic lights who is
wearing a hand-made jeans jacket decorated with occasional patches; and the next moment
Amancio would call one of his designers to describe the garment he has recently spotted to have
it in the coming Zara collection.

In 2012, Ortega asked the vice-president of Inditex, Pablo Isla, to take his place of the Inditex’s
chairman. However, at the age of 79-years-old Amancio Ortega travels daily to the headquarters,
10 miles away from his home place, showing no sign of being less interested in the further
international expansion of his brands. Despite his wealth, Ortega has never had his personal
office, as he enjoys working together with other
designers in the open-plan space developing new
trends and discussing new colors and fabrics. Forbes
top list persona remains open to all employees, as
there are no memos and lack of computers in this
hierarchically flat company and Inditex’ employees
do not have to fix appointments with Ortega long
beforehand. Moreover, Loreta García, one of
Inditex managers, reports that they never attend
fashion shows, but listen to customers spotting new
tastes, Amancio Ortega still performing as the main
muse and inspiration for the whole corporation.

Covadonga O'Shea, Ortega’s friend and his biographer, mentions that Amancio like to work and
rarely takes vacations. The textile empire owner lives quite a modest life residing in his native La

4. Coruña, the Galician town with approximately 300,000 citizens located on the North Atlantic’s
windswept coast. Amancio Ortega visits the same coffee shop every day, downtown La Coruña,
ordering eggs and fries for breakfast. Fellow citizens often see Ortega walking along Plaza Maria
Pita. The mogul behind Zara eats lunch in the company cafeteria, sharing tables with some of the
fabric experts and buyers to discuss business matters. He never visits resorts for millionaires,
Greece being his rare vacations choice. His flying fear also motivates Ortega to devote a few
weeks a year to hiking pilgrimage tours along Galicia. While at home, declining extravagant
hobbies, Amancio Ortega is fond of rearing chickens and goats, as well as meeting his
grandchildren at his Spanish villa.

Xabier R. Blanco, a Spanish journalist, who wrote an unauthorized biography of Amancio
Ortega Gaona, states: “Poverty clearly made him who he is. There was hunger. Show me any
great boxer who didn’t come from this kind of background.” Unprivileged childhood conditions
and no MBA degree obtained have obviously made Amancio the man he is: possessing an
entrepreneurial spirit, deeply involved with all the business routine, while keeping a low profile.
Despite his fashion business, Amancio Ortega has no interest in wearing brands himself, being
seemingly the only person who does not wear Inditex’s garments. His outfits’ preferences are as
modest as his lifestyle: no tie, a simple white shirt, a blue uniform blazer, and gray trousers, -
none of those branded.

Unique Business Model of Zara
Ventured into clothing retail since early juvenility, Amancio Ortega Gaona launched his own
company, GOA, in 1963. Having formed successful sewing cooperatives with the low-cost local
workforce, Ortega was offering fast production clothing turnarounds. Several factories being
acquired in Spain, Amancio Ortega opened his first storefront in La Coruña downtown, called
Zorba, in 1975. Named after Ortega and his first wife’s favorite movie, the store soon changed
the name Zorba into Zara. The reason of that was a complaint of the owner of a bar located
nearby and called Zorba. The bar Zorba remained local,
but Zara stores expanded to several Spanish cities by the
early 1980s. Few years after Inditex holding company was
formed, 1988, Ortega opened first Zara shop in Portugal,
where he found the working force to be even cheaper than
in Spain. In 1989, Zara shop was opened in the USA, and
it was introduced in London in 1998. Zara’s further
international expansion came along with Inditex’ retail
portfolio development: 1991 – Pull & Bear, and Massimo
Dutti; 1994 – Stradivarius; 1998 – Bershka; 2000 –

5. Oysho; 2008 – Uterqüe. By 2000, the Inditex’ brands were distributing in over 30 international
markets.

Amancio Ortega’s business success is tightly connected with a unique business model of the fast
fashion retailer. The two key ideas of this business model are: to give customers what they want
as quickly as possible. For instance, Zara is known for its 12,000 new designs developed and
distributed annually, speed being the retailer’s driving force. Moreover, Zara refreshes its
garment stocks twice a week. Amancio Ortega Gaona imposed a golden rule back in the 1970s,
which states to receive new orders within 48-hours’ time period. That is why, Zara factories look
like a well-oiled machine, where hundreds of designers and sales analysts co-operate in an open
space floor, organized around these two principles, namely the delivery speed and a customer-
orientated approach. Designers usually create three models a day, and analysts together with
patternmakers choose one item from each set. Commercial experts usually possess regional
expertise, being from varied backgrounds. These experts apply reports from local managers to
compile appropriate to customer habits collections. Each employee of Zara is trained to keep an
eye on clients’ styles, requests, and selling trends.

These two basic rules to give customers what they want, and deliver the orders with the
motorway speed, - have assisted Amancio Ortega in building a fashion empire. The Spanish
Inditex corporation has become a global fast fashion retailer with its 92,000 employees
employed in 6,500 shops, which are currently located in 88 countries, the annual sales being over
€18.1 billion. The fast fashion empire would have been impossible to build unless Ortega has
ripped up traditional haute couture business model to replace it with his own unique one, refined
over decades. However, those brutal schedules, the fashion industry has never attempted to keep
to, are not always flawless. There arise failures from time to time, being removed from stores as
soon as detected. There was such an incident on Manhattan, where Zara white jackets were not
loyally met by the clientele. As soon as sales staff discovered that the latest prefer cream color,
the white ones were withdrawn, and the model reissued in cream tones, which in turn was a
success. There is a term “location-specific customisation”, and for Zara the term “Zaramisation”
is quite suitable as well.

To save their customers from identically dressed fashion twins, Zara never reproduces its hits.
The brand simply modifies and offers varied versions. Loyal Inditex’ customers also know the
best days to purchase items from new collections. For Zara, the day of new clothing deliveries
are Sundays and Thursdays, whereas shoes come on Tuesdays and Fridays. At Stradivarius and
Massimo Dutti, new garments arrive on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every Tuesday and Friday
works for Bershka and Pull & Bear. Seduced by the state-of-the-art collections, which are
meticulously cut and tailored in countries with strong traditions of sewing, famous Zara clients
include: Queen Letizia of Spain, the Duchess of Cambridge, Michelle Obama, Mary Berry,
Olivia Palermo, Alexa Chung, Katie Holmes, Samanta Cameron, January Jones, etc. A famous
fashion blogger, Garance Dore, has coined another term – “Zaragasm”, which means being
seduced by the variety of choice and fashionable message of Zara offers.
Due to the business model described and a Zaragasm influence, very few companies are able to
compete with Inditex. Its high street competitors are known only for fashion, as opposed to Zara,
which is also associated with its definite style, a feature attracting privileged 45+ demographic
with its vast disposable income. A retail analyst at Barclay’s, Christodoulos Chaviaras, believes
the company is challenging itself to operate faster. A new Zara store, for example, opens on a
daily basis somewhere in the world; and the 6,000th store of Inditex’ was launched on Oxford
Street, London, a few years ago. There are approximately 50 Zara storefronts in the US, 2,000 in
Spain, and about 350 in China. Most manufacturing factories located still in Spain and its
neighboring countries, Inditex group has its production in China and Morocco as well, - which
makes it possible to increase the production overnight.

6. Amancio Ortega Investing
Amancio Ortega’s business portfolio, which has made his net worth, includes not only fashion,
but also some additional investments, such as: gas, banks, tourism, and worldwide real estate
holdings. Inditex shares’ price increasing constantly, Ortega Gaona owns the holding’s 59.3 per
cent, currently valued at €110 billion. Financial magazines report the fashion business allowed
Ortega to become the owner of real estate holdings in London, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon, as
well as Miami luxury accommodations. Apart from the business activities, Amancio Ortega
invests in charity. Together with his first wife, Rosalina Mera, Ortega founded PAIDEIA
Foundation in 1986.This philanthropic foundation assists people with mental and physical
disabilities to get an interdisciplinary education and training. Amancio Ortega’s ex-wife still
performs on the position of the president of the foundation. PAIDEIA received many awards
since the beginning of that charitable project, Amancio Ortega introduced another non-profit
organization in 2001. Called “Fundacion Amancio Ortega,” it is a private NGO aiming to
promote science, research, education, social action, culture, and welfare. Recognized with
"Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit" in 2009, Mr. Ortega is the president of the
organization, and Flora Pérez Marcote, his younger daughter, serves as the vice-president.

The unique business model of Zara business, with its two golden rules of giving customers what
they want as quickly as possible, is not the only one business secret of Amancio Ortega. Being a
prime properties owner, Amancio Ortega rents them to his Zara stores and correspondingly
performs as his fashion business’ landlord. It is not a coincidence that Inditex’ stores enjoy a
loyal land proprietor, who never increases the rental
cost. Moreover, Ortega has recently purchased
another USD $60-million stake (the first one cost
US$105 million) in Barcelona’s prime real estate,
which hosts Apple flagship store. Purchasing real
estate locations in London’s West End, Meatpacking
District of NYC, Barcelona’s best shopping areas, and
Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, Amancio Ortega has
presumably spent USD $1 billion back in 2014.
Bidding with the owner of London’s Tower Place,
Rockefeller Center, and the Chrysler Building,
Tishman Speyer, for the 43-floor Picasso Tower,
Madrid’s famous office building, Amancio Ortega
won. His USD $556-million offer was accepted, and
Amancio Ortega Gaona paid all cash.

The unemployment in Spain being at a critical level even now, the trough of the crisis fell in the
year 2007, when all Spanish corporations downtown’s offices in Barcelona, Madrid, and Bilbao,
sold their properties and moved out. Inditex has not heard about the crisis, Amancio Ortega
taking the advantage of the Spanish economic default to acquire locations for deep discounts.
The president of Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, Modesto Lomba, believes Inditex
lives in another dimension. Pablo Isla, the CEO of Inditex, annually announces the stable growth
of the holding’s revenue. Currently, Amancio Ortea maintains both: the fast fashion retail
business, and his real estate investments, - being compared to Sam Walton, the Wall-Mart
founder, and Donald Bren, the Irvine Company owner, the most powerful one in the real estate
sector. The precise value of Ortega’s empire being unclear, the businessman spent somewhere
around USD $6 billion in 2014 to purchase real estate in Chicago, Miami, San Francisco,
Washington, Berlin, and Paris. Such acquisitions are usually made through Pontegadea
Inmobiliaria and Pontegadea Inversiones, Ortega’s real estate holdings.