This Saturday he died, at the age of 71, being a magnate, one of the richest businessmen in Spain and his business group, in the fashion sector, one of the largest in Europe: that is what the chronicles of Isak Andic’s misfortune say, founder of the renowned fashion brand Mango, who suffered an accident during an excursion. But before reaching the top, Andic dedicated itself to importing clothing. So, with four blouses brought from her native Istanbul raised a $4.7 billion empire in Catalonia and in the rest of the world.
Detail-oriented, intuitive, tenacious, creative and demanding, this is how those close to him mourn this Saturday, although Andic dressed many more hearts than those who knew him. Mango, the brand that Andic forged, grew alongside another Spanish brand better known to Argentines, Zara, by Amancio Ortega. They were both united by their origins without double surnames or high birth nor the pomposity of the French surnames of haute couture: they came from below, and the garments that their brands still sell are for everyone.
Until this Saturday, Ortega was his rival: he led the list of great fortunes in Spain, which had Andic in fifth place. But the boss of the Inditex Group was also an object of admiration for the businessman who died this Saturday.
Andic was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1953, although when he was 14 years old, his family settled in Barcelona, at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea. Five years later, the young man began to make a name for himself in the textile trade. Was with four blouses that she had imported from her homeland and that he sold to a Catalan store. Then blouses and shirts arrived from other latitudes, such as India. The small success he gained during those times allowed him to buy a car so he could take the products he sold to more points in Catalonia and Spain.
It didn’t take long, at the age of 20 in 1973, to open his own multi-brand clothing store, called Isak, which he began to import from other places in Europe. Of course, fashion was changing and the most discerning minds with a keen sense of what was coming, season by season, as “the new thing” managed to make their way into the environment. It was also clear to Isak Andic that fabrics from the East and the Middle East were coveted, but so were other garments with a much more Western feel. Time to brainstorm ideas.
From the convenience of selling clothing from various brands, he became convinced that it would be better to have clothing produced with his own label that he would sell in his store. And so he did it: in addition to blouses with good designs or good fabric, or both, the workshops he asked to make the garments also came out of jeans pants, as they said in Spain in those years, or jeansas it was called on this side of the Atlantic.
Post-Francoism, low prices and celebrities: the commercial view to build a textile giant
In 1984, with all the expertise he had accumulated in the textile trade, he renamed his brand Mango (since he tried the fruit in the Philippines and was delighted with it) and invited businessman Enric Casi to the business, who showed him a future in the making. He advised him that the company should continue, as the only concept, brand and distribution chain for clothing of all types. The first store that bore the Mango name was in Barcelona, on Paseo de Gracia, and just a decade later there were already 100 stores.
He knew how to read the cultural and political news of Spain, which came out of the dictatorship after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. They were years of exposure and aesthetic daring. “He saw that we needed color, style,” said Mango’s global sales director, César de Vicente, in an interview with AFP.
He also knew how to incorporate not only new trends but an entire gender: until 2008, Mango was exclusively feminine. That year the Mango men’s collection was born, which years later would be renamed Mango Man.
One of the last stores that opened was in New York, at number 711 Fifth Avenue, Isak Andic’s dream: 2,000 square meters and several floors. Forbes magazine placed him as the fifth wealthiest person in Spain and the richest in Catalonia, his adopted homeland: 4.5 billion euros of assets (about 4.72 billion dollars).
His company, Mango, is present in 115 countries with 2,800 stores and more than 15 thousand employees. It is also a recognized brand. The association with superstars, such as the model Kate Moss, the actress Penélope Cruz or the footballers Zinedine Zidane and Antoine Griezmann, helps. The profile of low prices and the speed to adopt trendswhich make their stores one of the favorites of tourists. Spain is the most profitable place, but a part of the heart was still in Istanbul, the city with the largest number of company stores.
Andic was, for a few years, non-executive president of the company he founded, which over the years he ran not only with Casi, but also with his brother Nahman, and later with his children Jonathan, Judith and Sarah.
It was Jonathan (41) who this Saturday was walking with his father through the Salnitre caves, in Montserrat, almost 50 kilometers north of Barcelona. At one point, while he was a few steps ahead of Isak, Jonathan heard the sound of a rock and sand fall. He turned and found tragedy: the noise was that of his father, who slipped and fell 150 meters into the void.
Isak arrived in Catalonia at the age of 14, wanting to take on the world, and this Saturday, at the age of 71, he died as the richest in the Catalan community.
In addition, he received praise from politicians, such as the farewell message that President Pedro Sánchez dedicated to him this Saturday, and even awards such as the Kingdom of Spain for Business Achievement, presented by King Felipe VI.
“This recognition is not for Isak,” Andic himself mentioned when being decorated, “it is for Mango. Because Mango is much more than a person, since he has a little of the effort and work of each of the people who have worked and work on the project. This is the key to our success.
But today Mango and Spanish and European fashion mourn Isak Andic.