Consuelo Font
Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-18:38
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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.