The founder of Spanish shopping chain ZARA has now toppled Bill Gates to become richest person on earth.
Amancio Ortega’s fortune shot up by £1.4 billion earlier this week when shares in its parents company rose taking his personal wealth to £67.2 billion.
That saw the 80-year-old pip Microsoft founder Gates’ £66.4 billion fortune as well as other moguls such as US investor Warren Buffett and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
His moment in the sun didn't last long though as within 48 hours Mr Gates was back on top.
The son of a railway worker became the world’s richest man on Wednesday, according to Forbes magazine , when shares of his business Inditex went up 2.5%.
Last year shares went up 40% as sales soared.
But it's his daughter that is likely to benefit from his huge empire, with 31-year-old Marta expected to take over the running of the international business.
She has not been confirmed as his successor just yet but she has been trained at the chain, even stacking shelves in her younger days.
Ortega, from La Coruna, transformed clothing group Inditex from a tiny family dressmaker into Spain’s biggest company using its “fast fashion” model.
Affordable catwalk imitations can move from drawing-board to stores within two weeks, and poor sellers are removed from the shop floor even quicker.
He started his professional life at 14 as a delivery boy with a shirt maker and within a few years he had set up a work shop making nightgowns, lingerie and babywear.
The first Zara opened in Spain in 1975 and is now a fixture on high streets around the world.
He holds a 59.3% stake in what is now the world’s biggest fashion retailer, ahead of Gap and Hennes & Mauritz.
One former director said of his intense focus on which clothes are selling: “If he speaks to a shop assistant and he likes what they had to say, he will pay more attention to that than to any of his managers.”
The Forbes Top Five Billionaires
1.Bill Gates, head of Microsoft
2.Amancio Ortega, Zara boss
3 Warren Buffett, American business magnate
4 Carlos Slim Helu, Mexican business magnate
5.Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com
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