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Amancio
Ortega Gaona
is a famous Galician fashion designer
and entrepreneur. As the co-founder and
chairman of Inditex Group, he's been listed
as one of the richest men in the world
by Forbes.
Amancio
Ortega Gaona, best known as Amancio Ortega,
was born on March 28, 1936 in Leon, Spain.
His father worked on the railroad while
his mother helped support the family by
working as a maid. At the age of 13, Ortega
began working for a shirtmaker as a delivery
boy in La Coruna, Galicia, the center
of the Iberian textile industry. He worked
for a variety of stores and tailors and
studied how products and costs changed
as they traveled from the manufacturer
to the consumer. As a result, he became
focused on the importance of getting products
directly to the consumer without a middle
man.
Ortega
never attended higher education and continued
to work in the textile field into the
early 1960s. After becoming manager of
a local clothing shop, he discovered that
only wealthy individuals could afford
to purchase fine clothing and became even
more determined to make quality clothes
accessible to everyone. As a result, Ortega
started making his own products, purchasing
cheaper fabric from Barcelona and selling
good quality, cheaper products to local
stores. In 1963, at the age of 27, Amancio
Ortega founded his own company called
Confecciones Goa that made and sold fine
bathrobes.
Ortega
continued to build his company and in
1975 he opened his first retail store
called Zara. It was located across the
street from on of La Coruna's most well
known department stores and Zara became
famous for selling high quality designer
products at reasonable prices. As a result
of this success, Ortega continued to open
stores and was credited with choosing
perfect locations for each one. By 1989
Amancio Ortega Gaona was successfully
operating almost one hundred Zara stores
in Spain.
With
the Zara's increasing popularity and overwhelming
success, Ortega created Inditex in 1985
as the holding company for the Zara brand
as well as other smaller chains. Inditex
became one of the largest textile companies
in the world.
Ortega
continued to keep his brand simple and
direct. His goal was to bring designs
from the runway to the common consumer
in only a few short weeks. Ortega wanted
the clothing to be produced in fewer quantities
and for stores to be refilled more often
to cut down on inventory and shipping
costs. Since Ortega kept his factories
in Spain and produced smaller amounts
of clothing, he was able to keep jobs
in his home country, continue to save
shipping costs, and pass the savings onto
the consumer. Zara became so popular,
in fact, that Amancio Ortega hardly needed
to advertise at all.
Inditex
Group went public in 2001 and, with over
59% of the shares in his possession, Ortega
quickly became one of the wealthiest men
in the world. He continues to keep a low
profile however, so much so, in fact,
that few people have ever seen a picture
of him. Ortega never grants interviews
and rarely shows up for public events.
Amancio
Ortega lives a very private life with
his second wife in La Coruna and, although
he avoids the financial intricacies of
the publicly traded company, he still
enjoys designing and working with the
details of fashion.
This Amancio Ortega Gaona biography
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