Consuelo Font

Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-18:38

  • Fashion Isak Andic: even richer since he removed his family from the management of Mango

  • Business Violeta Andic and Rocío Peralta, united in a new ecological fashion business

  • Mango Companies signs stars like Eva Cárdenas and Marc Puig to continue making millions

This Monday, March 18, King Felipe VI presented the

King of Spain award

for business career at the IESE Business School to Isak Andic, co-founder and

president of the Mango firm

.

At 71 years old, the famous textile industrialist has been included in the

Forbes

ranking of

the hundred richest in Spain in 2024.

W

ith a

fortune of 2.7 billion euros

, after his company invoiced a whopping

3 billion euros last year, he is the richest person in Catalonia.

Which seems to be a personal merit for this fashion visionary, who in 2014 threatened to leave the business in the hands of his first-born son, Jonathan.

However, after the

sharp drop in profits,

he took back the reins of his company, boosting online sales and restoring its strength to the brand through

new initiatives

such as

Violeta Mango

(for large sizes) or

Mango Team

(for young fashion).

Born in

Istanbul in 1953

to a

Sephardic Jewish family,

Isak started in the fashion business with his

brother Nahman,

with whom he still works side by side.

In 1969, at the age of 16, he settled with his parents, Manuel Andic and Sol Ermay, in Barcelona.

After studying at American High School, in 1972 he sold his first merchandise:

four embroidered blouses

made in his native country, Turkey, to a

boutique called Ibiza

.

Isak Andic with Carolina Herrera and Kate MossGTRES

Two years later, the brothers set up

their own stall at the Balmes market

and in 1984 they opened their first

store on Passeig de Gracia

.

They named it Mango because Isak

loved the fruit

when he tried it during a trip to the Philippines.

Currently, the firm has more than

2,700 points of sale around the world

and continues to expand, being one of the most international Spanish companies.

In May 2022, the firm

opened its new store in the United States:

a 2,100-square-meter establishment on

Fifth Avenue in New York

.

Its opening (with dinner afterwards at the famous Baltazar restaurant) was attended by Katie Holmes celebrities.

Familiar and discreet

Andic personally collected the award that the monarch gave him, which is an exception for him, since he happens to be

a very discreet man,

who is rarely seen at public events.

A personal friend of

Queen

Letizia, he is a member of the board of trustees of the Princess of Girona Foundation.

Although he always attends the awards ceremony presided over by the Kings and starring Princess Leonor, he does everything possible so that

his presence goes unnoticed.

He also doesn't like it to

transcend his personal life

.

And even less the sentimental one.

She married

Neus Raig in the late 70s, a marriage that lasted two decades

and gave birth to

her three children

:

Jonathan,

born in 1981;

Judith

, in 1984 and

Sarah

, in 1997. The first two work with him in the company, while the youngest has studied fashion abroad.

Subsequently, he had a ten-year relationship with

the stylist Zenaida Bufill Comadran

, with whom he broke up in 2016. His last known partner was

Estefanía Knut

, a prominent

golfer twenty years younger,

Spanish amateur champion and bronze in the European championship in 2011. She is the ex-wife of Gonzalo Rodés, son of the late

Leopoldo Rodés

, an intimate businessman of the

founder of Mango.

Andic resides in the

exclusive town of Esplugues

, in a luxurious

mansion of 1,600 square meters

and three floors on a plot of

4,500 meters of gardens

, surrounded by tall cypresses to

preserve its privacy.

Likewise, he owns another mansion in the

Baqueira Beret ski resort,

where the family usually meets in winter.

But what he is really passionate about is sailing on his spectacular sailboat, the Nirvana Formentera, the

largest registered in Spain

with its 53 meters in length and 11 meters in width.

Valued at

30 million euros

, he usually makes long journeys on it, even going around the world in 2009.

The tycoon also has

a private plane

that cost him

32 million euros

and he uses for

private and professional trips

.

A great lover of art, he is the owner of an important

private collection of contemporary paintings

, part of which is exhibited in the Mango headquarters located in the Palau-solita and Plagamans in Barcelona, ​​where

some 500 employees work.