The founder and owner of fashion empire Mango, Isak Andic, died on Saturday in a mountain accident, police said. He was 71. The businessman slipped and fell over 100 metres from a cliff while hiking with relatives in the Montserrat caves near Barcelona, a police spokesperson said.
"His departure leaves a huge void but all of us are, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements. It is up to us ... to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak was ambitious and proud of," Mango's CEO, Toni Ruiz, said in a statement.
Born in Istanbul, Andic moved with his family to the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia in the 1960s and founded Mango in 1984. He was worth $4.5 billion, according to Forbes. He was non-executive chairman of the company when he died. He was seen as a rival to Amancio Ortega, the owner of Inditex, the world's largest fast-fashion retailer. Mango had a turnover of 3.1 billion euros in 2023 with 33% of its business online and a presence in more than 120 markets.
Foundation of "Mango"
He arrived in Barcelona in 1968, where he began his career in fashion in 1972. With four hand-embroidered blouses made in Turkey, he made his first sale to a store called Ibiza on Vía Augusta in Barcelona. Before that, he continued selling to various stores in Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities in Spain until he opened his first store at the Balmes street market in Barcelona in 1973. From that year until 1984, he opened several multi-brand stores in Barcelona named Izak, catering to wholesale customers.
In 1984, at the age of 28, he met businessman Enric Casi, who helped him transform his business vision into a unified concept, brand, and global distribution chain with the creation of Mango. That same year, together with his brother Nahman and Enric, he founded the textile chain, opening the company’s first store on the prestigious Passeig de Gràcia. The brand name was chosen after the commercial registry rejected the initial names, Bubbles and Scooter. During a trip to Thailand, Andic tried the mango fruit, liked it so much, and decided it would be the final name for the fashion brand.
By 1994, the Andic brothers had reached a milestone of 100 stores in Spain and began their international expansion, alongside Enric Casi, who managed Mango’s general operations for two decades.