Amancio Ortega's Net Worth, Biography, Industria de Diseno Textil and Business career

Amancio Ortega is a self-made Spanish business magnate and founder of Inditex (Industria de Diseno Textil, SA), a Spanish clothing merchandiser, popularly known for its Zara clothing and accessories chain stores. He is also a board member of Daez (COO). He ranks No. 9 on the Forbes 2020 World's Billionaires list. With little formal education and a good business experiential knowledge, Ortega has built himself a fortune.

Net Worth

$63.5B as of May 27, 2020

Early Life and education

Amancio Ortega Gaona was born on the 28^th of March, 1936 to Josefa Gaona Hernandez and Ortega Rodriguez in Busdongo de Arbas, Leon, Spain. He spent a better part of his childhood in Leon until he left for A Coruna at the age of 14.

Business Career

Moving to A Coruna caused Ortega to leave school, however, on arriving A Coruna, he got a job at a Gala, a local shirtmaker store, as a tailor-assistant—there he learned to make clothes by hand. Working at Gala exposed him to the garment business. He spent most of his working hours making and delivering clothes directly to the customers. He later managed another garment store which manufactured men’s shirt like his previous job, only that they made clothes for a wealthy client-base.

Since he directly delivered the clothes to the customers, he used to opportunity to build a good client base. He also saw an opportunity in expanding his client base through the use of less-expensive materials and standard manufacturing techniques. By 1972, with the experience and knowledge he gathered from working at the previous stores, he moved on to open his own clothing store, Confecciones Goa where he sold quilted bathrobes. Three years later, in 1975, he opened his first Zara store together with his wife Rosalia Mera.

The store was initially named Zorba but was later renamed to Zara after Ortega learned a bar nearby also used Zorba. The store started off manufacturing and selling imitation products of popular expensive products of other clothing stores at a lower price. In the early 1980s, other Zara stores were opened across Spain, and by 1988, the company had its first international expansion through Porto, Portugal. It first expanded to the U.S. in 1989, and then France in 1990—and kept expanding beyond shores every year. In 2015. Zara was ranked on Interband’s list of best global brands as 30^th.

From manufacturing imitation low-price garments, Zara now owns its own clothing line where it manufactures men’s clothing and women’s clothing as well as children’s clothing (Zara Kids). The company also manufactures its product according to the latest consumer trends.

Ten years later, after the opening of the first Zara store, Ortega founded a new company, Inditex which was created as a parent company for Zara and its manufacturing plants. Through Inditex, Zara was able to include other products such as footwear, Tempe, in its production line. In 1991, an Inditex subsidiary was created, Pull and Bear, to handle casual men’s wear. In a later part of the year, Inditex acquired a 65% share in the Massimo Dutti brand. By 1993, Inditex created another subsidiary, Lefties which became a company for selling leftovers/old clothing from Zara.

By 1995, Inditex acquired the rest of the Massimo Dutti shares and expanded the line to include women’s wear. In 1998, the company yet launched a new brand, Bershka, to handle manufacturing products according to urban hip fashion trends.

Inditex’s initial public offering was done in 2001. The company’s IPO sold 26% of the company to public investors at €9 billion. Later in 2001, Inditex launched the Zara Home brand, which dealt with the manufacturing of beddings, home décor, kitchenware, and glassware.

In 2010, Inditex joined the e-commerce business line, with top competitors like Alibaba and Amazon. However, unlike other online retail stores, Inditex e-commerce was to boost Zara products sales. It launched its website in Portugal, Italy, Spain, and the UK. By November that same year, it expanded to Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, and the Netherlands. By February 2016, Inditex had launched its e-commerce sites in 28 markets. The company intends to sell all its brand products online by 2020.

Inditex Brands

Source: Inditex Wikipedia page