Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Amancio Ortega Gaona

Amancio Ortega. Photo by Gobierno Abierto. Wikimedia Commons.

Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Amancio Ortega Gaona

Amancio Ortega, the Founding Chair of retail giant Inditex, the parent company of Zara, the largest global fashion retailer, is the wealthiest person in Spain and one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Ortega built a retail empire as one of the earliest and most successful pioneers of fast fashion—a retail concept based on the rapid production and distribution of inexpensive versions of designs copied directly from fashion runways or pop culture icons. Here are the Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Amancio Ortega Gaona. Let us look at the top 10 remarkable facts about Amancio Ortega Gaona.

1. His success was inspired by what he saw his mother endure

Amancio Ortega at an opening. Photo by Gobierno Abierto. Wikimedia Commons.

Ortega’s lifelong drive for success was triggered by a traumatic incident that happened shortly after the family arrived in their new town. One evening, as he was walking home with his mother, he witnessed her pleading for credit to buy groceries and coming out of the store empty-handed because the store owner refused to extend her line.

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.

2. He started working in the textile industry at 13

In lifelong drive for success was triggered by a traumatic incident that happened shortly after the family arrived in their new town.

One evening, as he was walking home with his mother, he witnessed her pleading for credit to buy groceries and coming out of the store empty-handed because the store owner refused to extend her line.

3. Customer preference and speed determine clothes he produced

Rather than do what his boss and every other retailer did, buy inventory and hope that customers would buy it, Ortega knew that he would make more money if he could learn exactly what people wanted, produce copies of those designs as quickly as possible using much cheaper materials, and sell them at much lower prices.

Since that first brainstorm, Ortega has never veered from the two core principles, customer preference and speed, that enabled him to build the retail conglomerate Inditex.

4. His retail titan was almost named something else

At nearly 40 years old, Ortega founded Zara in La Coruna, Spain. Ortega initially proposed the name of Zorba, his favorite character in the movie Zorba the Greek, but it did not receive permission for usage.

The reason for that was a complaint from the owner of a bar located nearby and called Zorba. After shuffling the letters, Ortega subsequently arrived at the name Zara (to be pronounced “Thara” in Spanish).

5. His business partner was also his life partner

Amancio Ortega. Photo by Emiliano García. Wikimedia Commons.

In 1975, he opened his first store with his wife, Rosalie Mera, whom he had two children with and later divorced in 1986. He began manufacturing women’s bathrobes in 1963 with the help of his siblings and soon-to-be-wife Rosalia Mera, who hand-stitched some of the initial pieces in their house.

At the time of Mera’s death in 2013, she was the richest woman in Spain and the world’s richest self-made woman. He later married Flora Perez, with whom he had one child.

6. He keeps a low profile

Ortega is very private about his personal life, and as of 2012 he has only given three interviews to journalists. Ortega is very reclusive and keeps a very low profile. Until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published.

He likes to dress simply, refuses to wear a tie, and typically prefers to wear a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and gray trousers, none of which are Zara products.

It is a known fact that the overall amount of pictures with Amancio Ortega, who has been avoiding the limelight during his whole life, cannot amount even 200 ones. Zara official news corporation has presented most of them.

7. Ortega had a very humble childhood

Amancio Ortega Gaona. Photo by Emiliano García-Page Sánchez. Wikimedia Commons.

Amancio Ortega Gaona was born on March 28, 1936 (the beginning of the Civil War in Spain) in Busdongo de Arbas, a small village with less than 100 citizens located in the northern Spanish region, León.

He was the youngest of four other children. Being extremely poor, the Ortega family soon moved to La Coruña, Galicia, Spain, surviving due to Amancio father’s job at the local railway station. They lived in a beggarly house at the railway workers’ quarters. His mother employed as a housemaid.

8. He founded his first company in 1963

In 1963, having gained ten years of managing sewing cooperatives experience, Amancio Ortega Gaona founded his first company, Confecciones GOA, S.A. (his initials if to read backward). The founder of the bathing robes business organized Confecciones GOA into a family company.

Amancio was responsible for developing new fashion trends, Antonio (his brother) was heading the commercial issues, Josefa (his sister) was responsible for bookkeeping, and Rosalía Mera Goyenechea (January 28, 1944 – August 15, 2013) was performing as his business partner.

9. Marta is considered to be his likely successor

Being in her early 30s, Marta, Ortega’s daughter from Flora Pérez, is considered to be his future successor. Marta is very close to her father; similar to Ortega’s experience, she has undergone her professional training at Inditex, starting from the lowest level of a store employee.

 Along with the career similarities, Amancio Ortega and Marta share horse riding a hobby, the loving father purchased an equestrian center in Galicia, Spain.

10. He has a very impressive business portfolio

Photo by Emiliano García-Page Sánchez. Wikimedia Commons.

Amancio Ortega’s business portfolio, which has made his net worth, includes not only fashion, but also some additional investments, such as gas, banks, tourism, and worldwide real estate holdings.

The fashion business allowed Ortega to become the owner of real estate holdings in London, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon, as well as Miami luxury accommodations. Apart from the business activities, Amancio Ortega invests in charity.