The owner of the zara has become the most. The king in clothes: how the founder of Zara became the richest man in the world. Creation of a unique organizational system

Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega is the richest man in the world. The fortune of the owner of Inditex, which unites the brands Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho and others, is now equal to about $ 72 billion. Secret has found out what rules Ortega followed to accumulate such a fortune.

Money shouldn't be the goal

Ortega is from a poor family: his father is a railroad worker, and his mother is a servant, there was barely enough money for the essentials. Once, when he was 12 years old, he and his mother went to the grocery store, but had to leave empty-handed. He heard the seller say: "Josefa, I'm sorry, but I can no longer sell you goods on credit." This angered Ortega, he decided that he did not want his mother to ever hear something like this. Soon he dropped out of school and got a job as an assistant in a sewing workshop.

And yet, according to the founder of Zara, money is not the most important thing for him, it is more important to be able to set goals and do everything to achieve them. “Doing business for the sake of money is a waste of time. When you earn as much as we do, it is obvious that we will hardly need more. For me, money has only one meaning. They are needed to achieve goals. And if you are successful, then it is useful to help those who depend on us, so that their lives become better, ”says Ortega.

Photo: Jim Hollander / EPA

Find your niche

“From the time I started working, I have been obsessed with one idea: why not invent something different from everything else on the market? I saw clearly that it was necessary to occupy the free space that remained in the world of the textile industry, ”said Amancio Ortega in an interview with the former editor-in-chief of the Spanish Telva magazine Covadonga O'Shi.

In 1963, Ortega first went into business, his wife joined him, and then his brother and his wife. They organized the production of cotton robes and nightgowns: they sewed them by hand, creating models similar to designer ones. “The fact that only rich ladies could dress well has always seemed unfair to me,” Ortega said in 2003.

Later, Zara representatives began to travel to fashion shows around the world and copy clothing models. Ortega's company has been repeatedly accused of plagiarism, but Zara is sure that they do not copy, but catch fashion trends and use common ideas. So, in 2008, Zara unsuccessfully tried to sue the French shoe manufacturer Christian Louboutin - the luxury brand claimed that the retailer had violated its trademark by using very high heels and a red sole. The cost of Zara shoes then did not exceed $ 100, and a pair of Christian Louboutin often cost more than $ 1000.

Do everything quickly

For Amancio Ortega, speed has always been important: production speed, delivery speed and model update speed. Ortega set a rule in Zara - the lineup stores must be updated every two weeks, and warehouses must be delivered within 48 hours.

By offering customers varied and small quantities, Zara can always count on selling out. If some things are not in demand, they are quickly replaced with more popular ones. While customers visit other clothing stores on average four times a year, they visit Inditex stores almost 17 times a year.

Ortega allowed his clients to regularly update their wardrobe. Back in the 90s, journalists wrote that Ortega changed the consumer habits of people: "We are already beginning to define Zara-mania in consumer habits: to buy the most fashionable things in order to get rid of them with a pure heart next year."

Do not delegate

“If I want everything to continue to work, I must remain at my post,” says Amancio Ortega. Acquaintances describe him as a passionate worker who is ready to hold even birthdays in the factory. A businessman loves to control everything in his company - from the search for ideas for new models to how sales consultants behave in his stores.

Ortega left Inditex's presidency in 2011 at the age of 75, but continues to travel regularly to Inditex's headquarters, located in the billionaire's home province of La Coruña. There, he most often sits at a table with the designers, fabric experts and buyers of the women's clothing line Zara. Ten years ago, a businessman admitted that although he is fascinated by the entire production process, what he enjoys most is looking at the work of his artists.

Photo: Konstantinos Tsakalidis / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Keep growing

The first Zara opened in 1975 in A Coruña, and in the 1980s, the chain's points were already throughout Spain. However, this was not enough for Ortega - he wanted to conquer all the fashionable capitals. In 1988 he opened the first Zara store in Portugal, in 1989 in New York and in 1990 in Paris. The first Zara appeared in Russia in 2003. “Even when I was nobody and I had practically nothing, I dreamed of development and growth. We have never rested on our laurels and did not choose the easy paths. Optimism can be a very negative emotion. You have to take risks! New ideas come up every day and we don't have any pre-set plans. Growth is a survival mechanism. Without growth, the company dies, ”says Ortega.

By the mid-1980s, Ortega realized that one brand was not enough to satisfy all segments of the population - Zara was mainly dressed by middle-class women. In 1991, he launched Pull & Bear, a youth-friendly, low-cost casual wear brand. Then he bought a stake in Massimo Dutti, which clothes upper-middle-income clients (now the brand is wholly owned by him). In 1998, Bershka appeared, offering clothes to young party girls, and in 1999 Ortega bought his main competitor in the teenage clothing market, the Stradivarius chain. Today Inditex - largest group companies in the clothing market, which includes more than 6777 stores in 88 countries.

Sources: The Zara Phenomenon by Covadonga O'Shea, Bloomberg, Forbes Cover photo: Efa via EPA

Today the company "Zara" is known to almost every person. Commercial network offers a very large selection of products for its customers and boasts an affordable pricing policy. The company responds quickly and easily to customer inquiries. It's no surprise that pretty clothes are so popular with the average citizen. "Zara" - which country's brand? Who is its founder? What is the history of creation? You can find answers to these and other questions about Zara in this article. The fashionable Spanish brand produces clothes for men, women and children. In addition, products such as footwear, accessories, lingerie and perfumes are produced.

A few words about the founder

The largest company that cares about its customers and at the same time keeps up with fashion trends is Zara. Whose brand, who stands at its origins? This question is of interest to many fashionistas. Amancio Ortega Gaona is the founder of the network. He was born in a small Spanish town and spent his childhood in poverty. When the boy was 14 years old, he and his family moved to the province of Galicia. There he got a job as an apprentice for an Italian fashion designer. In 1972, being a thirty-seven-year-old man, Amancio Ortega opened his own knitwear factory.

"Zara". Start

The history of the Zara brand began in 1975. It was then that Amancio Ortega, together with his first wife Rosalia Mera, opened their own small store. It was located on the main street of A Coruña. The future fashion tycoon wanted to name his store Zorba as his favorite movie was Zorba the Greek. But there were problems with registration, and Amancio had to change his name to ZARA.

The incredibly successful ideas of a Spanish businessman

Gaona was ahead of the Chinese and was the first to realize that making copies of the best things from world famous couturiers is a good and most profitable business... Moreover, such clothes will cost much less. And this means that the average consumer will surely "bite" on fashionable clothes at low price. Amancio's concept has proven to be very successful. The Zara brand quickly became popular. They began to open with crazy speed outlets in all corners of Spain. In the 1980s, Jose Maria Castellano joined the Ortega team. Together, friends came up with the "instant fashion", which became an innovative business system... Also, the newly minted colleagues opened their own design studio, which they called Inditex.

Acceleration of production

After gaining popularity in Spain for ten years, the Zara brand began to appear on international market... In 1988, the first overseas store was opened. He was in Portugal. But Amancio and his company still had another problem. The range of clothes was updated too slowly, new models came out only two or three times a year. Jose Maria Castellano, expert on information technology, was able to solve this problem. He created a unique and innovative model for the manufacture and distribution of products. With the help of special computer development, the company was able to shorten the time between the production of new models and their appearance on the market. This period was only ten to fifteen days.

Design team

The Zara brand is widely known all over the world. And this is not surprising at all. Indeed, for the quick and high-quality production of products, the company's leaders in the company decided to hire not one designer, but a whole internal team of stylists, which already employed more than two hundred people at the end of the 1990s. They worked on the basis of the collection of fashionable popular clothes. In addition, the designers worked on the development of the company's own style. Set course made it possible to quickly respond to new consumer demands and the emergence of the latest fashion trends. Modernization of production and inventory procedures, new computer programs accounting of goods, as well as highly qualified designers saved the ZARA company from any losses and accumulation of a large amount of returnable clothes in warehouses.

New Markets

Today, young people love and appreciate products from the Zara company (the country of the brand is Spain). But this retail chain was able to gain a good reputation in the international markets only in 2000. In the 90s, Inditex gradually filled the counters of the USA, Mexico, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Malta and Cyprus. At the end of the twentieth century, the company began to supply its products to Israel, Turkey, Argentina, Great Britain, Venezuela and Japan. But the most suitable for ZARA was the French market. New retail outlets quickly opened here, which were located in the major cities of the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, the company entered the markets of Germany, Holland, Poland, Ukraine and other countries of Eastern Europe.

Products and services

The Zara brand, the origin of which is associated with many interesting facts, produces fashionable clothes for men, women and children. In addition, the company produces a line of shoes, cosmetics, accessories and perfumes. The main thing for ZARA designers is to focus all attention on the fashion preferences and requirements of their clients. It is important for the company to satisfy the needs of the buyer, and not to promote new models through shows or other means of influence, which are traditional in the fashion industry.

Pros of "Zara"

The ZARA retail chain offers its customers enough wide range of products unlike any other companies in the fashion industry. This company produces about eleven thousand different products a year, while competitors produce only two to four thousand. The company only needs one month to launch a product from the development stage, and it only takes two weeks to make changes to the design of an already released product. "Zara" quickly and easily responds to current customer requests thanks to the accelerated production process. If any model is not in demand, then it is immediately withdrawn from sales. Moreover, all orders for its production are canceled, and the company immediately launches products with a new design. It is noteworthy that any product has not been in stores for more than one month. For this reason, customers try to visit ZARA brand outlets as often as possible.

Company production capabilities

"Zara" is a clothing brand that is a vertically integrated chain retail... The company differs from similar distributors in that it manages the design, manufacture and marketing of its products. Most of the production of goods is under the control of ZARA. Half of the products are manufactured in Spain, 26% in other European countries, 24% in Asia and Africa. The company's competitors manufacture their products in Asia. But ZARA is engaged in the production of the most fashionable models only in its own factories, which are located in Spain and Portugal. It is in these countries that wage labor is paid much cheaper than in the rest of Western Europe. The Zara retail chain is moving its production to Asia and Turkey only for the production of goods such as standard T-shirts and T-shirts, since they have been on store shelves for a long time.

The life of Amancio Ortega, creator of ZARA

Amancio Ortega is considered the wealthiest businessman in Spain. He is the person who owns the Zara brand. Now Amancio ranks fourth in the ranking of the richest people on the planet. His capital is sixty-four billion dollars. When the Inditex Corporation was doing great, and Zara even surpassed its main competitor H&M in revenue, the founder of the company started having family problems. Amancio Ortega and his first wife Rosalia Mera went through the most difficult moments of their business development together. They had two children - daughter Sandra and son Marcos, who had a severe disability. In 1985, the couple officially terminated their relationship. After the divorce, 7% of Inditex shares passed to Rosalia, who died in 2013, and her daughter Sandra Ortega Mera inherited her fortune. Amancio married his assistant Flores Perez Marcote for the second time. They still live in perfect harmony today. They have a daughter, Marta, who works for Amancio's company. Ortega stepped down as chairman of Inditex at the age of 78 a few years ago. He handed over the reins to young and enterprising people. Now Amancio leads a rather secluded life and does not communicate with journalists.

"Instant fashion" of the "Zara" company

The Zara brand is part of the Inditex corporation. This group also includes such well-known brands as Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Uterque, Stradivarius, Oysho and Pull & Bear. ZARA clothing is a combination of design approach and affordable prices... Now the clothing of this brand is the best-selling in the whole world. New clothing lines hit the market at lightning speed and are updated quite frequently. More than four hundred designers are working on creating new models. The creator of ZARA called this approach “instant fashion”. Clothes do not stay on store shelves if they are not in demand. It is quickly removed from production and a new one is created. To date, one thousand six hundred ZARA stores have been opened in seventy-seven countries of the world.

The founder of the Zara chain of stores - Spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega became the richest man, displacing founder Bill Gates from the first line. Ortega's fortune in the World Ranking of Billionaires, the data of which is updated in real time, was $ 79.7 billion.Over the past day, the fortune of the Spanish businessman has grown by 5.2%, or $ 3.9 billion.

Amancio Ortega

World Ranking Forbes billionaires in real time differs from the annual ranking of the magazine by the daily update of data on financial situation richest people on the planet based on the value of stocks and other securities owned by businessmen. The agency has a similar real-time rating. However, according to the Bloomberg Billioners Index, the founder of Microsoft is almost $ 10 billion richer than the Spanish businessman. So, as of October 22, the fortune of Bill Gates is estimated at $ 83.8 billion, while Ortega ranks second with $ 75.7 billion.

Amancio Ortega owns Inditex with over 6,750 stores in 88 countries and famous brands Zara, Oysho, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull and Bear, Zara Home, Stradivarius and Uterque. Ortega's brands focus on the middle class and do not try to conquer the luxury clothing market. This strategy is bearing fruit: now the luxury goods manufacturers are going through hard times, since the economic situation in China, namely, the slowing demand in China and Hong Kong, affects the performance of the largest market players.

In the first half of the year, Italian retailer Prada's revenue in Asia, which accounts for 36% of all sales, declined 1.4% in local currencies and 17.5% in fixed-term terms. courses currencies. In mainland China, the figure fell by 1.2% and 19.3%, respectively, it reported.

According to CFO LVMH Jean-Jacques Giony, the summer collapse of the Chinese stock markets will affect LVMH as well (the reporting of the group of companies is due to be released next week), although, in his opinion, the market will feel a decrease in demand for “only a few months”.

At the same time, the world's largest luxury goods maker said that spending growth has slowed for Chinese travelers in recent months. “We see more and more tourists from China, but they are spending a little less. The growth rate of purchases in the third quarter is not as high as it was in the first half of the year, ”Gioni quotes. This situation comes against the backdrop of a weakened euro, due to which Asian travelers organized massive shopping tours at the beginning of the year.

However, the drop in demand for luxury goods so far most of all affects the British Burberry Group Plc, since up to 40% of all its profits come from purchases of Chinese consumers.

In the first half of the year, sales in Chinese and Hong Kong stores of the fashion house fell by 5% and 20%, respectively.

Another factor that also negatively affected the company's performance was their focus on the domestic, English market, which accounts for about 40% of European sales. Many "dollar" buyers take advantage of the weakening of the European currency and come to shop on the continent, draws the attention of MainFirst Bank AG.

According to the company, the company may return to 5% growth in comparable sales in the second half of the fiscal year, which will last until March 2016. Nevertheless, writes Reuters, whether the second quarter was unsuccessful for the company due to external reasons, or whether the decline in indicators may become a trend is still unclear.

Queens and students, movie stars and clerks wear Zara clothes. The dark paper bags from these stores can be found on city streets around the world. The Inditex group, which in addition to Zara also includes the brands Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius and others, is one of the largest players in the international clothing market. It allows millions of shoppers to wear inexpensive, fashionable clothing. Most of them do not know that all this was created by the entrepreneur Amancio Ortega, who, together with his family, turned a small sewing workshop into an international corporation.

The Village read the book The Zara Phenomenon, recently published by Exmo, and learned how one of the world's most famous clothing brands came to be.

Difficult childhood

“I remember one afternoon after school I went with my mother for a meal. I was very young, and she met me at the school. Therefore, very often
I went shopping with her. The store we went to was one of those big grocery stores with a counter so tall, so tall that I didn't actually see who was talking to my mother, but I heard a man's voice saying what I carried through
time and never forget: "Joseph, I'm sorry, but I can no longer sell you goods on credit." I was shocked. I was only 12 ".

On that day, the son of the Spanish railroad worker Amancio Ortega decided that such an incident with his mother would not happen again. He dropped out of school and took a job as a sales assistant in a tailor shop in the town of A Coruña. Buyers immediately noticed the diligent boy, and the affairs of his family went uphill.

At the age of 17, Amancio left his first company and was accepted as an assistant in
La Maja. The company had several branches, in which his older brother and sister Antonio and Pepita already worked. Amancio was quickly promoted
to the manager, and his place was taken by a 16-year-old girl named Rosalia Mera Goyenchea, whom he married two years later.

The owners of La Maja paid attention to the suggestions made by the young Ortega. One of them was the idea to make clothes using factory fabric and the labor of his brother Antonio's wife, a dressmaker. After a while, Ortega quit to concentrate on the sewing business.

“I decided to follow the impulse and started GOA with my brother Antonio,” Amancio said. - We have opened an account for 2,500 pesetas (less than 20 euros today). My half-sister, who knew how to sew, and my first wife, Rosalia, made the famous quilted robes, which were very fashionable at the time. "

Then, in 1963, family business was a small workshop. Then Amancio was engaged in the purchase and subsequent export of clothing from other Spanish manufacturers. Ten years later, he had the idea to go to retail market- in 1975 he opened the first Zara store in his native A Coruña.

International network

In 1979, Amancio merged all of his companies under the Inditex flag. In the 80s, he filled all corners of Spain with his shops, and even before the end of the decade, he was seized by a brave and reckless idea - to conquer fashion capitals
world, open in Paris and cross the Atlantic to conquer New York.

“When I arrived in Paris in 1990, shortly after the opening of our first store, next to the Place de l'Opéra, I rushed there to
see everything with your own eyes, - said Ortega. - When I tried to enter that first store in the French capital, I could not get through the line of people crowding even on the street. I stood there in the doorway, crying like a child. I could not contain my feelings. "

From the very beginning, the company relied on fast fashion and the repetition of models of famous designers in more available materials... In the Inditex office there was a special department, whose employees studied fashion magazines, and also dissected dresses from the latest collections in order to borrow their cuts for their models.

Knowing that a single brand would not satisfy all customers, Amancio decided not to settle for Zara, whose consumer audience was middle-class women and which generated 78 percent of its revenue. In 1991, he created Pull & Bear, which represented casual wear for young people. He also bought a stake in Massimo Dutti, which targets upper-middle-income clients of both genders, and took over the brand in five years.

In 1998, realizing that he needed to cover the needs of teenagers hanging out in discos, he created Bershka - for girls who do not want to dress like their mothers or older sisters, and the next year he bought Stradivarius to complement Bershka, thus obtaining control over the two main brands in the teenage market. In the 2000s, the group also acquired the Uterqüe accessory brand.

Business model

The first step in the process of creating a new collection is identifying trends. The company's employees travel all over the world, looking at what people are wearing and how customers are dressed on the street. Their observations can be turned into sketches, which are then shown in internal meetings. Designers look at dominant colors and materials and then examine specific elements in detail. They also get information from fashion magazines, runway views, TV shows or celebrity outfits from the red carpets, and so on. The brand stores also report that they are in demand now.

With all this information on hand, designers create line prototypes (over 22,000 items per year). Prototypes are tested on real people and dummies. The items that pass the test are returned to the hands of the fashion designers who create the patterns. Fragments of the pattern are placed on the fabric like a puzzle, trying to find the most profitable option use of the material.

When marketing gives the final approval for the production of a thing, requests are sent to different factories, which offer their prices and terms for performing a specific work. The one who offers the closest to the ideal gets the job. Inditex usually produces 25% of its collection before the start of the season. This reduces warehouse costs and avoids the risk of not meeting customer requirements.

“We have the opportunity to completely abandon a line, if it is not for sale, we can fill the collection with new colors and create a new style in just a few days,” Ortega said.

Regular sellers at the beginning of the season exhibit high prices, a
then they cut their margins for several months to sell the product. The consumer knows that at the end of the season, he or she will be able to buy things at lower prices. Ortega updates its line in stores around the world every week or twice a week in European stores... Customers know
that they will always find new products in the store, but they also know that they definitely will not find in the store what they tried on there seven days ago. Thanks to this, customers visit Inditex stores about 17 times a year, instead of the average 3.5 times in other clothing stores.

The store manager has complete control over his territory, large or
small, with a staff of ten to 120 people. Many managers act like CEOs, and their salaries go up to 240 thousand euros per year. These are the people who place orders in the catalog and inform the head office of what works and what doesn't.

The company has six fundamental rules governing customer communication. These are known as the "top six":

Always work with a pleasant expression;

Smile at the checkout;

Hold a pen in your hands;

The manager should be more interested in clients than others;

Dressing rooms are an important point in the sales process;

Patience is important throughout the store.

Now the number of Inditex stores where these rules are observed has exceeded 6,600. In 2001, the company listed its shares on the stock exchange, but Amancio retained a controlling stake. He is in the fourth line of the Forbes list of billionaires with a fortune of $ 71.5 billion. The founder of the company does not like publicity and tries not to get caught in camera lenses. At the same time, employees say that the enormous wealth did not affect Amancio's character in any way.

“He didn't let anything change him,” says Elena Perez, manager of his first store in Madrid. - The company keeps growing and growing, but he wears the same shoes, shirts and pants. I know that he would like to wear Zara clothes more often, but sometimes he is terribly annoyed by our men's department because they don't have pants his size. "

Photo: Cover - Martin Good / Shutterstock.com, 1 - TORRECILLA / EPA / TASS, 2 - Vytautas Kielaitis / Shutterstock.com, 3 - Wikipedia