A born entrepreneur, a lover of commerce. Those are, according to those who knew him closely, the words that best define Isak Andic, the founder, president and largest shareholder of Mango, who died today in an accident near Barcelona.
He was born in 1953 in Istanbul (Turkey), into a Jewish family of Sephardic origin, but at the age of 14 he moved with his family to Barcelona, where he soon began to develop his passion for commerce. At the age of seventeen, he was already selling clothes and shoes at markets, blouses that he imported from Türkiye. He opened several denim clothing stores and made inroads into seasonal fashion, until in 1984 he opened his first Mango store on Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona.
Today, forty years after that first establishment, the group has reached a turnover of 3,103.8 million, and has launched a new strategic plan until 2026 that aims to raise sales above 4,000 million with the opening of more than 500 stores and the renovation of 150. Andic is ranked number 5 on the Forbes list of the largest fortunes in Spain, with an estimated wealth of more than 4.5 billion euros.
From the beginning, Andic had a vision of expanding the brand globally, and in 1992 it opened the first Mango store abroad, in Portugal. From there, international expansion was rapid and strategic. The key to its success was the vertical integration strategy that allowed it to control everything from the design and production of clothing to its distribution, thus optimizing costs and times.
The business holding
He controlled his businesses through a holding company that also included his three children -Jonathan, Judith and Sarah- and from which he developed not only intense activity in the business ecosystem but also in the cultural world. He was president of the Family Business Institute, from 2010 to April 2012, and member of the international advisory board of the IESE business school (IAB), of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation, patron of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, of the Museum National d’Art of Catalonia (MNAC), the Elena Barraquer Foundation and the MACBA Foundation.
He also held positions as vice president of Banco Sabadell and was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Investment Advisory Council for Turkey. Both he and his brother Nahman, both founders and owners of the company, are very jealous of their privacy, with few appearances in the press, although those close to them highlight that he is a man with a kind, simple character and attached to his family.
The entire fashion world has expressed their admiration for him today after his death. The president of Inditex, Marta Ortega, has lamented the death of the founder of Mango, highlighting that he “has marked an era with his example”, in addition to conveying her “admiration for the great company” he founded. “Sad news for all those who were lucky enough to know him and a great loss for the Spanish business world and for the global fashion sector; in both, Isak Andic has marked an era with his example. My deepest condolences to his family, friends and everyone who is part of the great company he created and which we at Inditex admire so much,” he declared.
From Tendam, he wanted to “express our most sincere condolences for the death of Andic, deeply sad news that moves the entire industry.” According to the company that owns Cortefiel, ““Isak Andic will be remembered as one of the visionaries of the sector in Spain”.
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