Amancio Ortega, the founder of Spanish fashion retailer, Zara, has been named the third richest person in the world with a net worth of $57 billion, by the Forbes Magazine. This is the first time that the business tycoon is featuring on the list.
Ortega owns about 60 percent of the shares of Inditex, known for the brand Zara and his earnings are said to have increased by $19.5 billion since 2012.
Inditex has more than 6000 stores worldwide and runs brands like Zara, Zara Home and Massimo Dutti to name a few. The brand has some stellar patrons like Kate and Pippa Middleton, Katie Holmes, Olivia Palermo, Cat Deelay and Diane Kruger.
Zara lives by unique ideals of never keeping the product on the rack for too long. It is said that the brand needs just two weeks to produce new merchandise instead of the industry’s staple six months. No wonder the brand removes the merchandise from its racks just after about a week of display and replaces them with a brand new collection. Hence, customers know that they have to buy a certain product immediately before it is removed, reports Reuters.
Zara is credited with launching about 10,000 new designs each year and also doesn’t believe in transferring production to low cost countries.
Mexican telecom’s Carlos Slim features at No.1 and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is at No. 2 on the list. Slim has topped the list for four consecutive years with a net worth of $73 billion.
The list also features Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton at No. 10 with a net worth of $29 billion, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, with $30 billion, Diesel owner Renzo Rosso with $3 billion and designer Tory Burch with $1 billion.