Sunday, April 16, 2017, 00:12
What every entrepreneur is looking for when he opens his business is that the idea is successful and monopolizes the maximum possible market volume. And even be aware of how difficult their desire will be to fulfill, several Spaniards have intervened in that list of the world’s big hits, and even occupied the top5 of the richest on the planet. Perhaps when they started their companies, they were not called ‘entrepreneurs’, but in Spain their number does not stop, despite the lack of financing.
On the occasion of World Entrepreneurship Day held on Sunday 16 April, it is important to remember the most striking cases of the world successful entrepreneurs who were born with a small company in Spain. They are that of four men in the textile and food sector: Juan Roig (Mercadona), Amancio Ortega (Inditex), Ramón Areces (El Corte Inglés) and Isak Andic (Mango). All years ago founded a small company that has now become multinationals that are able to generate the most important income of the country and export Spanish products to all corners of the world.
Inditex
It is the best known case of successful Spaniards worldwide. The founder, Amancio Ortega, is the fourth richest person in the world according to Forbes Magazine, with an estimated fortune of more than 65,000 million euros and therefore more than Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Born in Busdongo (León) in 1936, started his professional career in the textile world with 14 years in La Coruña as an employee of two clothing stores until 1963, with 27 years old, he created the business confections Goa who focuses on the production of bathrooms. Twelve years later he opened the first store in Zara in La Coruña, where she started selling clothes for men, women and child.
A year later, in 1976, Goa becomes the owner of Zara and the establishment of branches throughout Spain is opened. It is only in 1985 when the Inditex group is made because of the increase in the company’s activity. The first store that Ortega opened from Spain was in Porto in 1988, but in the 90s it largely grew throughout Europe, America, Asia, the Central East and North Africa.
The OP van His empire was in 2001 and in 2011 Ortega announced to his employees that he left the presidency of the Inditex Group in favor of Pablo Isla, who has already been CEO and vice president of the group since 2005. Inditex has been expanded from 269 stores in 2005 to 7.013 at the end of 2015 under the islander.
Inditex SA, acronym for textile design industry, has its head office on the industrial estate of Sabón, in Arteijo, La Coruña. The group currently has more than 152,000 employees and operates more than 7,000 stores in the five continents under the most important brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Uterqüe, Lefties and Stradivarius.
According to Forbes Magazine, Amancio Ortega temporarily placed on 23 October 2015 for Bill Gates as the richest person in the world who coincided with the maximum stock market in the history of Inditex. Something would happen again on September 7, 2016 for a few minutes.
Mercadona
Although it is not a multinational Inditex’s size for the time being, it is the most successful food chain in Spain with around 1,600 supermarkets that are divided over the territory. Mercadona SA was born in 1977 within the Rigo Canyan Group, a company of Francisco Roig and Trinidad Alfonso, the parents of Juan Roig (Valencia, 1949), current president of the company. The name of Mercadona comes from the Valencian ‘Mercat de Dona’ (Vrouwenmarkt).
In 1981, Juan Roig buys his parents’ company, which at that time only has eight overseas stores in Valencia. Currently, the nearly 1,600 supermarkets reached 21.6 billion euros in invoicing in 2016 and a market share of 14.7% with a presence in the 17 autonomous communities of Spain.
The growth and expansion of Mercadona is considered a success that is worth studying within the sector. During the period 1998-2003, the growth of the sales volume exceeded 25% per year, when the normal ratio usually does not exceed more than 9%. Juan Roig was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Business Excellence in 2010.
Mango
The co -founder, owner and president of the multinational textile mango, Isak Andic (Istanbul, 1953), arrived in Barcelona with 15 years and started his fashion career in 1972 when he did his first sale at a store named Ibiza de Barcelona of Barcelona Four Blouses embroidered with the hand of Türkike. He opened his first store in Barcelona in 1973, but it was only in 1984 when he founded the chain with his brother Nahman and the businessman Enric. Almost and opens his first establishment in Barcelona.
In 1994 they had already spread more than a hundred stores across Spain and started his international expansion. Nowadays it has more than 2,700 points of sale in more than 105 countries. The company has more than 16,000 employees, 80% women.
In 2010 it became the second largest Spanish fortune, which was later surpassed by entrepreneurs such as Juan Roig Alfonso. In 2011 he ranked 221 in the classification of richer characters in the world that Forbes Magazine has made an estimated heritage of 4.8 billion dollars. Andic currently has the fifth most important fortune in Spain and despite its importance, it has led an extremely discreet way of life since it has not appeared public appearances until 2007.
The English court
Ramón Areces (La Mata, Asturias 1904-Madrid 1989) was the person who brought the idea of stores with several brands, as he knew from his time in the El Encanto de Havana store and the Anglo-Saxon models of the United States and Canada. In 1935 it was installed in Madrid and in 1940 the Limited Company El Corte Inglés formed. In the 60s, branches in Barcelona, Sevilla and Bilbao opened, which started the national expansion.
The diversification of the company with the opening of Hipercor, Supercor of Bricor, has made a small customization of the precious street of Madrid, became one of the largest companies in the history of Spain. According to the latest data, the company obtained a turnover of 16,520 million euros in 2016 and has more than 92,000 employees throughout the country.
