The richest man in the world stands at the A Coruna International Show Jumping competition in Arteixo, Spain on July 31. / Photo credit: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images
Amancio Ortega, the Spanish retail genius who started Zara, passed Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates to become the richest man in the world on Wednesday and Thursday, before Gates reclaimed the title Friday morning. Shares of Ortega’s business Inditex, parent company to Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, ticked up 2.5% Wednesday, boosting his personal fortune by $1.7 billion, then fell 2.8% by Friday. As of 10 a.m. Friday morning, Ortega was worth $77.8 billion, while Gates was worth an estimated $78.1 billion.
The son of a railway worker from La Coruña, Spain, Ortega is as reclusive as he is rich. He started his career as a store clerk in his hometown before opening his own business. Beginning with less than $100, he and his wife Rosalia Mera began making lingerie, pajamas and nightgowns in their living room.
In 1975, the couple (who eventually divorced) decided to open a store named Zara. Eight years later, Ortega had expanded to nine locations around Spain. In 1984, he opened a 10,000 square meter logistics hub.
Unlike most retailers, Inditex hardly relies on advertising. Ortega has instead devoted most of his resources into turning his company into the most efficient retailing operation in the world. When companies like Gap and H&M were taking five months to design, make, distribute and sell new products in the early 2000s, Zara was doing it in three weeks. That meant Ortega’s companies could keep up with the whims of shoppers much more easily than its competitors — and also had to spend less on warehousing.
Ortega took the business public in 2001 and debuted on the Forbes billionaires list the same year, with a net worth of $6.6 billion. By then, Gates was already the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $58.7 billion.
