Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2010. Ortega’s Forbes ranking and €21,500 million fortune, Inditex’s presence in 70 countries and its list of brands reflect that year; Uterqüe was later folded into Massimo Dutti in 2021–22.
Amancio Ortega was born in León in 1936, although he spent practically his whole life in A Coruña, where he started his first company, Confecciones Goa, in 1972.
In 1975 he opened the first Zara store, which was so successful and so well received that he was able to start expanding into other Spanish provinces. Zara did so well that in 1985 he set up a parent company for the business, the Inditex Group.
It was then that his advisers urged him to build up the Zara brand. Amancio ignored them and created new brands: Oysho, Bershka, Zara Home, Pull&Bear and Uterqüe.
Why have just one clothing brand in many cities when I can have four different brands on a single street in the same city?
Later he acquired Stradivarius and Massimo Dutti, until the group was present in 70 countries around the world, without big-name designers or major advertising campaigns.
According to Forbes magazine, Amancio Ortega is currently among the 10 richest people in the world, with a fortune of €21,500 million.
He has three children, and besides fashion his passions are horses, flying and fast cars.
Until recently, nobody even knew what Amancio Ortega looked like, because he kept out of public view and remained completely anonymous.
He doesn’t give interviews and doesn’t attend his own companies’ board meetings. This way of being is one of the keys that led him to success. His biography is not as interesting as the secret of his success. We have prepared the following article, and we encourage you to read it:
- The secret of Amancio Ortega’s success
- How to be a successful businessperson
- How to start a business with no money
- Which legal structure to choose for your business
Featured image: José Antonio Gil Martínez (FreeCat), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
