Amancio Ortega
May 17, 2011 – 5:15 pm
Amanciao Ortega Gaona is a very well known industrialist and fashion designer. He is the chairman and co-founder of Inditex Group. In 2001, Inditex Group went public and he possessed over 59% of shares which made him a wealthy man. Forbes has listed him as one of the richest person in the world. Ortega always keeps a low profile and never appears in any interview.
Amancio Ortega gaona was born in Leon, Spain on 28 March, 1936. His mother worked as a maid and father worked on railroad. By the time Ortega turned 13, he started working as a delivery boy for a local shirtmaker in the hub of the Iberian textile industry which is called La Coruna, Galicia. He worked at several stores and learned the changing process of cost and product when material travels from manufacturer to the customer. Very soon he began to focus on providing the products straightly to the customers without any involvement of the middle man.
Amancio Ortega Gaona was better called as Amancio Ortega who never went for higher studies. Into the early days of 1960’s, he continued working in textile line and attained good knowledge. He soon became manager of a clothing store and observed that only rich people could pay to buy good clothing. This made him more firm to make fine clothing available and reachable to every people. Very soon, he began to manufacture his own line of products. He started buying low priced cloth material from Barcelona and cheaper but good quality products to the local shops. In the year 1963, Ortega turned 27 years of age and by this time he established his own firm named Confcciones Goa which was known for selling good quality bathrobes.
Amancio Ortega kept on building his firm. In the year 1975, Ortega started his first retail shop named Zara which was situated across the lane from one of the most famous retail store of La Coruna. Very soon, Zara became a well known name for providing good quality designer range of products at an affordable price. By the year 1989, Ortega successfully opened around one hundred stores of Zara in Spain.
In 1985, he established Inditex which turned out to be one of the biggest textile companies by holding Zara and other small stores. He always focuses on cutting the cost of his products so that it may become reachable for common man. Ortega rarely needed any advertisement for Zara as it already became very successful and renowned name in the textile industry.