Amancio Ortega Gaona BoF 500 The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry

Amancio Ortega Gaona was born in a small village in northern Spain in 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War, and moved with his family to Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain, in 1949. His father was an itinerant railway worker, his mother worked as a maid, and the family lived in a row house on the railroad tracks. It began using cheap labor in China when Japan experienced a recession in the 1990s. Uniqlo has also forged a partnership with the Japanese denim manufacturer Kaihara Denim.

Zara, part of the Spanish company Inditex, was founded by Amancio Ortega in 1975. Initially named “Zorba” after the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, the name was changed to “Zara” due to a nearby bar also having the same name. Zara’s business model, called “instant fashion,” also allows fast adaptation to trends, leading to its rapid global expansion. Now, with 2,264 stores in 96 countries, Zara is the largest fast fashion retailer globally. It represents the Inditex brand internationally and is the group’s flagship store. Brands including Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe are part of the fashion conglomerate’s portfolio.

1. This week, Uniqlo appointed Clare Waight Keller the creative director of its main line, while Stefano Pilati signed on for a collection with Inditex flagship Zara and Zac Posen staged a New York Fashion Week bash with Old Navy.
2. But this won’t happen until fashion businesses treat them as their own employees, argues Edward Hertzman.
3. Ortega's business model for Inditex has been so successful for so long that fashion insiders, from competitors to industry analysts, study his strategies carefully.
4. BoF gains rare access to Inditex — the world’s largest fashion retailer and parent company of Zara — to understand how the business is addressing the vast environmental impact of its operations.

How well do you really know your competitors?

He started making clothes with his siblings and future wife, Rosalia Mera, in their home in the early 1960s. In 1975, Ortega and Mera opened the first Zara store in downtown La Coruna, Spain, according to Bloomberg. In 2001, Ortega founded the Amancio Ortega Foundation, a charitable organization focused on education and social welfare. As of April 17, 2024, Ortega had a net worth of $91.5 billion, making him the 15th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zara Founder's Real Estate Assets Top €6 billion in 2015

Zara was so successful that almost little advertising was needed; the chain relied on returning consumers. Modus’ Julian Vogel told the Guardian, “The office girls know that new stuff arrives on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Bloomberg reported in 2012 that he eschewed an office to sit among the designers and fabric experts at Zara's headquarters, while another report said he typically ate lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria every day. The office building was the tallest in Spain at the time, but it's now the tenth-tallest building in the country.

Op-Ed Fashion Brands Must Treat Garment Workers as Employees

Starting in 2020, customers can bring their used apparel into stores to be recycled, donated, or reused. Zara introduced 500 new designs per week, saving tonnes of garments from landfills. He stepped back from company operations in 2011, but his family is still heavily involved with Inditex. His daughter, Marta Ortega Perez, is the non-executive chair; his son-in-law, Carlos Torretta, has held the role of head of communications at Zara; and his brothers-in-law have worked as managing directors at Inditex-owned brands, according to the Financial Times. His retail empire Inditex helped Ortega build his $108 billion fortune, and he also invests his earnings into an expansive commercial real estate portfolio that includes office and residential buildings around the world. By the early 80s, Zara had expanded to several cities in Spain and in 1988, following the formation of Inditex, Ortega opened his first store in Portugal, followed swiftly by New York and Paris.

In India, Zara operates through a joint venture between Tata’s Trent and Inditex. Trent Limited is the retail arm of Tata Group that runs Zara stores in India through the joint venture with Inditex. Trent Limited also owns and operates other retail formats, including Westside, Zudio, and Utsa. Since stepping down from an active operating role at Inditex, Ortega has focused on preserving his fortune by expanding his real estate holdings, which Bloomberg valued at €15.2 billion ($17.2 billion) in 2020—the largest real estate portfolio among European billionaires. Zara is owned by Inditex, a Spanish holding company that also owns brands like Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, and Zara Home.

1. Here's a look at each company, what their focus is, who their customers are, and how they have developed their brands over the years.
2. After that first brainstorm, Ortega never veered from the two core principles—customer preference and speed—that enabled him to build Inditex.
3. It represents the Inditex brand internationally and is the group’s flagship store.
4. In addition to state-of-the-art design and production, the computerized inventory systems that linked stores to factories prevented unnecessary capital expenditure by removing the need for large warehouse inventories.
5. Zara's strategy is to offer a higher number of available products than its competitors.
6. This choice would later pave the way for one of the greatest retail careers in history.

I’m deeply honoured by the trust that has been placed in me, and enormously excited about the future that we are all about to embark upon together”. Zara-owner Inditex has named Óscar García Maceiras as its new CEO and Marta Ortega Pérez, the daughter of the company's founder Amancio Ortega, as its incoming chairperson. But this won’t happen until fashion businesses treat them as their own employees, argues Edward Hertzman. Ortega protects his privacy so fiercely that, when he made his first public appearance in 2000, in advance of the Inditex IPO, the fact made headlines in the Spanish financial press. Until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published—and he has granted very few interviews to journalists over his entire career. In 1949, at the age of 13, Ortega went to work as an assistant to a luxury shirtmaker in his hometown of La Coruña, where he learned to make clothes by hand.

In addition to Uniqlo, Fast Retailing also owns GU, PLST, Theory, Theory Luxe, Helmut Lang, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princess Tam Tam, and J Brand. Zara and H&M both have lines of premium products, as well as more affordable selections. However, Zara has made a bigger push into premium fabrics and product lines, while H&M continues to differentiate itself with its affordable lines.

What Is the Secret of Ortega's Business Model?

Zara's premium product line is both wider and more affordable than that of H&M, but H&M's affordable lines are lower-priced than Zara's. Uniqlo's introduction into the U.S. market occurred in 2006; there are 58 stores in the U.S. as of June 2024. RFID technology has made self-checkout far more efficient than traditional scanning kiosks at retailers like Zara and Uniqlo, but the industry at large hesitates to fully embrace the innovation over concerns of theft and customer engagement. This week, Uniqlo appointed Clare Waight Keller the creative director of its main line, while Stefano Pilati signed on for a collection with Inditex flagship Zara and Zac Posen staged a New York Fashion Week bash with Old Navy. The jury is still out on whether hiring designers from high-fashion will drive retail results.

The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world. When Inditex went public in 2001, Ortega established a family office, Pontegadea Inversiones, as the vehicle through which the Ortega family operates as majority shareholders of Inditex. The family office, in turn, channels most investments through Ortega's real estate investment arm, Pontegadea Inmobiliaria, one of the biggest property companies in Spain.

At that moment, Ortega was so humiliated that he decided he would drop out of school and start working—a decision that turned out to be the first step in one of the greatest retail careers in history. It's largest presence is in Spain, with 547 stores (including Zara Kids and Zara Home). Inditex’s earnings and sales in the first half of 2021 hit “historic highs” following the launch of successful spring/summer collections and strong online sales. “I have always said that I would dedicate my life to building upon my parents’ legacy, looking to the future but learning from the past and serving the company, our shareholders and our customers where I’m most needed.

Nurturing a highly intimate relationship with its customers, Zara’s designers respond instinctively to their changing needs, reacting to the latest trends and constant feedback to deliver new ideas for everyone in the right place and at the right moment. The Inditex model replaced one that required complicated global networks and nine months to get garments owner of zara brand from design to retail. He saw his mother pleading for a credit one evening as they walked home together, but the store owner wouldn’t extend her line, so she left the store empty-handed. Ortega was so humiliated at the time that he chose to quit school and go to work instead. This choice would later pave the way for one of the greatest retail careers in history. Ortega sticks to a simple uniform of a shirt and slacks and doesn't typically wear clothes from his own companies.

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