MADRID (Reuters) – 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 (BME:ITX), 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.
(This story has been refiled to fix the garble in paragraph 3)