Inditex, the group behind Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, and Bershka, is today a major force in the world of high-street fashion.

    It recently outranked Gap as the No.1 clothes retailer* in the world. In almost every city in the world, you will see one or more of Inditex’s shops, Zara being the most conspicuous*.

    Yet little is known about this amazing* success. This book offers an insight by telling the story of the genius* behind the Inditex Group — Armancio Ortega.

    Author Covadonga O’Shea tries to answer questions like: Who is this man? Where is he from? Where is he going? What led him to dream up this empire*?

    O’Shea structures the book around a series of interviews with Ortega and many of his staff.

    Ortega’s career was sparked* by a grocer refusing his mother credit when he was a child at her side. Humiliated*, he went to work, found a job in a clothes shop and went on to launch first a textile* business and then, after he was 40, the Zara retail empire.

    “The first thing that people want is to like what they want to buy,” says Ortega. “The product has to be right. That is the key.”

    The next secret is to get them to buy every time they visit. Zara renews its stock* twice a week. On the one hand, this means shoppers will find something new every time they visit. On the other, they also know that they have to buy or they won’t see the garment* again. This increases the rate of sale. Shoppers visit 17 times a year instead of 3.5 times for other chains.

    Ortega worked hard to be a success. When he went to visit his first Paris shop in 1990, this happened: “When I tried to walk into that first shop, I couldn’t make my way through the solid barrier* of people queuing in the street. I stood there in the doorway sobbing* like a kid.”

    (SD-Agencies)