Amancio Ortega Wikipedia

10 Jul Amancio Ortega Wikipedia

The Inditex CEO told Newsweek, “Our structure offers us a competitive advantage” (September 17, 2001). 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. By purchasing and developing brands that have unique styles, H&M hopes to appeal to a wider market of clothing shoppers.

Through Inditex Group, Ortega Gaona oversees over 6,000 stores around the world. According to Forbes, Ortega Gaona is the wealthiest retailer in the world and worth $69.1 billion as of 2019. Post-WWII manufacturing used low-wage workers from underdeveloped countries. Ortega kept jobs in Spain and showed that speed, flexibility, and low inventories could be just as important in keeping expenses down. While Ortega spent up to 15% more on labor than his third-world-employing competitors, he saved by doing almost no advertising, quickly adjusting to fashion trends, and minimizing shipping costs by keeping production close to markets. Inditex dodged human-rights critics since it didn’t exploit employees in poor countries.

Warren Buffett Fourth Richest Person But Closing In On Spain’s Amancio Ortega At No. 3

The focus on producing a wide variety of clothing in smaller quantities generates a sense of urgency among customers. Zara’s strategic investments in technology and collaborative design processes have led to its fast-fashion dominance across the globe. Over the next 10 years, Ortega took the business through a rapid series of expansion milestones. In 1977, company headquarters and Zara’s first garment factories were established on the outskirts of La Coruña. By 1983, there were nine Zara stores in shopping districts across cities in Spain; in 1984, the company’s first logistics center opened in that same central hub outside La Coruña.

The Business of Fashion

Internationally, he also owns properties in five other major European capitals (Paris, Berlin, Rome, Lisbon and London). The rapid growth of Shein, with its budget prices, has put significant pressure on the Zara owner and rival fast fashion group H&M. After exiting his A-Cold-Wall brand last year, the Virgil Abloh protégé is the latest designer to ink a deal with the Spanish fast fashion giant, widening access to his new SR_A menswear vision. Despite running major fashion retailer Inditex for four decades, he’s intensely private – there were no public photographs of him until 1999, and in 2012, Bloomberg noted that he had only ever granted interviews to three journalists.

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1. Amancio Ortega, the richest person in Spain and one of the richest persons in the world, is the founding chair of retail behemoth Inditex, the parent company of Zara, the largest worldwide fashion store.
2. The designers of H&M’s products are based out of the company’s home office in Stockholm.
3. In November 2018, Marta married Carlos Torretta — then a model agent and the son of designer Roberto Torretta — at her family’s home in Galicia, Spain, W Magazine reported.
4. Until 1999, no photograph of Ortega had ever been published—and he has granted very few interviews to journalists over his entire career.

The company’s manufacturing base and distribution network could deliver new garments owner of zara brand in weeks, 12 times faster than the competitors. Inditex supplied fewer things more regularly, avoiding high inventory expenses and frequent clearance discounts. Ortega’s automated system let him decide when to refill or drop a design; the company only made what it needed to sell.

Ortega and Perez share two children, including a daughter, Marta, who began in the family business nearly 16 years ago, according to the Financial Times. She married top Spanish equestrian Sergio Álvarez Moya in February 2012, but the couple separated in 2015. In November 2018, Marta married Carlos Torretta — then a model agent and the son of designer Roberto Torretta — at her family’s home in Galicia, Spain, W Magazine reported. Marta Ortega, the youngest daughter of Zara founder Amancio Ortega, is the current CEO and non-executive chairperson of Inditex, the parent company of Zara.

“I would like to thank the board, and especially Amancio Ortega, for the support and trust placed in me during all these years,” Isla said. “Now we believe that the time has come to turn a new page, with Marta Ortega as chair and Óscar García Maceiras as chief executive officer, whose appointment was already foreseen since his incorporation into the company due to his abilities and qualities. Making this transition a reality is the culmination of my commitment to Inditex and to Amancio Ortega. I would also like to thank each and every one of the people who form part of Inditex for their work and dedication”. Investors want Zara owner Inditex to follow rivals H&M and Primark in making its full list of suppliers public so they can better assess any supply chain risks. By investing in an elevated product and shopping experience, Spanish retailers Inditex and Mango are seeing tremendous growth despite fierce competition from the likes of Temu and a cash-strapped consumer.

The designers of H&M’s products are based out of the company’s home office in Stockholm. Part of H&M’s strategy to boost sales has been to offer customers featured products that have been marketed as designer collaborations with well-known names such as Versace and Alexander Wang. It has 3,832 stores open worldwide, as of May 2024, far more physical stores than Zara and Uniqlo. H&M’s infiltration into the U.S. market has also been more prolific than that of its competitors, with 508 stores open.

Each H&M brand has its own price range and visual concept; for instance, Collection of Style (COS) is sold at a higher average price than H&M’s principal basket of products and focuses on the European markets. Alternatively, Monki sells clothing pieces that are half the price of those sold by Collection of Style and features designs that are comparably youthful. 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. For example, once each Zara store was linked to the factory system, not only was all sales information automatically sent back to headquarters in Spain, but the on-site staff also constantly monitored the stock. If a style or color was selling well, new colors or patterns were added to existing designs. To transport its goods from factories to stores, the retailer relies on rail and sea as a means to promote efficiency within its internal logistics.

1. Trent Limited also owns and operates other retail formats, including Westside, Zudio, and Utsa.
2. Each H&M brand has its own price range and visual concept; for instance, Collection of Style (COS) is sold at a higher average price than H&M’s principal basket of products and focuses on the European markets.
3. In addition to Uniqlo, Fast Retailing also owns GU, PLST, Theory, Theory Luxe, Helmut Lang, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princess Tam Tam, and J Brand.
4. The office building was the tallest in Spain at the time, but it’s now the tenth-tallest building in the country.
5. 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.
6. If a style or color was selling well, new colors or patterns were added to existing designs.

Amancio Ortega is the founding chair of retail giant Inditex, the parent company of Zara. At the turn of the 21st century, as Ortega approached retirement, he decided that taking his family-owned business public was the best path forward. When Inditex listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange at a valuation of €9 billion—one of the most successful initial public offerings (IPOs) of 2001—Ortega’s sale of over 20% of his stake made him the wealthiest man in Spain, with a fortune estimated at over €4.6 billion. Zara’s approach to fashion differs from Uniqlo’s in that it attempts to predict customer needs rather than follow current fashion trends.

Zara divides the products sold within its stores into lower garments and upper garments, with price points being higher for the upper garments. Its flagship stores are strategically opened in key traffic points worldwide that have high real estate costs, such as its Fifth Avenue location in New York City. Zara does not stress advertising as a part of its branding strategy, differing from Uniqlo; the company instead funnels the dollars that would have gone toward advertising into new store openings. Zara’s strategy is to offer a higher number of available products than its competitors.

Inditex owns a portfolio of fast-fashion brands, including Zara, one of the best-known and most successful fashion brands in the world with nearly 3,000 stores in 96 countries, according to Forbes. Amancio Ortega developed the business model that would later be called fast fashion, revolutionizing the retail fashion industry and becoming one of the world’s richest men in the process. With his wealth, he has also built one of the world’s most valuable real estate portfolios. By the early 1960s, Ortega had already developed the core operating principles for the business model that would later be called fast fashion. Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo are popular retail chains in the world of fast fashion.