Zara’s owner has passed Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest man

Quartz.com

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish fast-fashion baron behind Zara—known for peddling cheap, trendy items like $15 crop-tops—has surpassed Warren Buffett to claim the title of world’s second-richest person.

His net worth,according to Bloomberg, is $71.5 billion compared to Buffett’s $70.2 billion—although Buffett would’ve been aheadif not for his philanthropic giving. Still, that leaves Ortega behind only Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had$85.5 billion as of June 2.

The ranking is indicative not only of Ortega’s tremendousbusiness acumen—he started Zara in 1975,making lingerie and bathrobeswith his former wife in their living room—but also of the world’sseemingly insatiable desirefor low-priced clothes. Just think of the margin on a $15 crop-top and how many of those you would need to sell to rival Ortega’s net worth.

Ortega’s company Inditex, which owns Zara, continues to go from strength to strength. In March,it reportednet profit for the fiscal year was up 5% from the previous year, and that it planned to open up to 480 more stores this year. Currently, the company operatesmore than 6,600 storesin 88 countries across the world, andoffers e-commercein at least 27 of those markets.

Ortega has done it all with a relativelyunique business model. While many other retailers were moving production to China to cut costs, Zara kept most of its manufacturing close to its home base in La Coruña. That allowed Zara to react quickly to trends and get products in stores right away. Customers could always count on Zara to find something new and on-trend.

Today, that’s still the case—Zara famously gets new shipments of clothing in its storestwice a week. And as Ortega’s new title proves, shoppers all over the world are happy to keep stopping in.