Biography of Amancio Ortega

Biography of Amancio Ortega
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Short Introduction of Amancio Ortega Gaona  

Amancio Ortega is a Spanish fashion entrepreneur and founder of popular fashion chains such as Zara, Pull & Bear and Oysho.

Amancio Ortega Gaona was born on March 28, 1936, in Leon, Spain. He is the youngest of four children. When he was fourteen, his family moved to A Coruna in Spain due to their bad financial status. His father was a railway worker. And his mother was a housemaid. Amancio started working at very young age.

First Job and Career

Amancio family is very supported for him; he got a job in the textile industry as an employee of two well-known clothing stories. He worked as a shirt-maker and there he learned very well the art of making clothes.

Due to Financial Condition

He left high school at the age of fourteen. He never received any higher education. Ortega continued working in the textile filed until the early 1960s.

First Experience of Success

He learned the basic business as well. He studied how products and costs changed etc. when they traveled from the manufacturer to the consumer. Ortega realized that to earn good money, one should give customers what they really want. He worked in the same industry for ten years, after that, he gained too much experience with that industry than he launching his own company.

Brands of Ortega

In 1963, at the age of 27, he started confecciones Goa. The business was successful and provided excellent quality bath robes at very cheap amount which is suitable of everyone. After that in 1975, Ortega opened his first retail store called ‘Zara’.

Startup of Zara Brand

Zara sells clothes for men and women and children also, like most other fashion brands. But what they did differently was to produce, his products such an amazing, clothing that the customers really wanted, cost effectively, in a short span of time. Another unique feature of Zara was that they never reproduced their most successful pieces. These hits were simply modified and offered in different versions.

Reason behind of Success

Zara become a massive success for providing clothing at low prices with express delivery. The brand was simple and direct. Ortega aimed to bring runway clothes to the common consumer in a few Weeks’s time. Zara become so popular that the company did not even need advertising.

In 1985, Ortega opened Inditex as the holding company of Zara. Inditex became one of the largest textile companies in the world. The Inditex Group now has over 92,000 employees.

Second step of Success  

Ortega fully expanded his business in the early 90s. After opening his stores in Spain, he launched Zara shops is Portugal, where the workforce was cheaper. Ortega expanded his business further and created brands like Pull & Bear, Bershka, Oysho and Massimo Dutti.

By 2000 he had reached more than thirty markets. The Inditex Group went the company making him of the wealthiest men in the world.  

Ortega also dabbles in investments and charitable work. Apart from investing his time and capital in the fashion industry, he has made investments in gas, banks, tourism, and real estate. With his wife.

Foundation of Ortega            

He founded The Paideia Foundation in 1986. The organization provides education to poor people with mental and physical disabilities. In 2001, he created another NGO called Fundacion Amancio Ortega. It aims to promote science, research, education, social action, and culture.

Journey of Beautiful life

Despite being a notable name in the fashion industry, he always keeps a low profile. He made very few public appearances. In fact, till 1999, most media outlets had not even published Ortega’s photograph. Ortega always avoids interviews and publicity.

Ortega said to be workaholic who has not taken a holiday for 25 years. He is known to spend millions to keep his life private. Due to this fact, no one has too many details about his first business partner.

Love life

The couple had two children. He divorced his first wife in 1986 and got married for the second time in 2001, Florida Perez Marcote. Flora’s daughter is considered to be Ortega’s successor.

Ortega Views on his life

Ortega’s life story shows that he achieved his success through sheer self-confidence and hard work. He created an unshakable trust with his customers which led him incomparable success.