This man is one of the richest people on the planet. However, no one knows his name while his products are bought by millions of people every day.
In the closed circle of billionaires, many are known to the general public: Bernard Arnault or Vincent Bolloré for the French, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk in the United States. But in the world, 2781 people have a fortune of at least 10 figures. These very rich people mostly make themselves very discreet, as is often the rule in the business world. But if the business is so flourishing, it is because there are necessarily a large number of customers. However, these customers often do not know from whom they are really buying a product.
While the bosses of some brands are media-friendly or famous, many hold an empire in secret from ordinary mortals. This is particularly the case of the second richest man in Europe, behind Bernard Arnault. His fortune amounts to $103 billion, according to the 2024 Forbes ranking. His career is worthy of a Hollywood script.
Born to a railway worker father and a domestic mother, having left school at 12 years to go to work and provide for the financial needs of the family home, Amancio Ortega Gaona has nevertheless become the 13th richest person in the world, the 2nd on the Old Continent and the 1st in Spain. His name means nothing to you? Yet millions of French people buy his clothes every year. This native of La Coruña, now aged 88, is quite simply the founder and former boss of Zara.
In France, his story is unknown. As a teenager, when he had no choice but to work, this Spaniard launched himself into ready-to-wear, at the bottom of the ladder. First a courier then a tailor, he began by making various clothes in the 1950s/1960s, before launching his own business in his hometown: GOA (his initials backwards), which became Zara in 1975.
Originally, the brand should have been called Zorba, like the name of a famous film from the 1960s. However, a bar near the first store was already named that and Amancio Ortega Gaona had to change the name, while he had received the letters to affix his sign. It was therefore transformed into Zara.
Since then, it is an understatement to say that the octogenarian has had a success story with more than 5,800 stores now open all over the world for 170,000 employees. In France, the brand is the leader in ready-to-wear with a turnover of nearly 1.8 billion euros. Now retired, Amancio Ortega Gaona has nevertheless remained the majority shareholder of the brand which also owns Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius. All the while living in the greatest discretion in the depths of Galicia.