Rosalia Mera, a seamstress who co-founded a
clothing store in northwestern Spain that
grew into Zara, one of the world's largest
retail chains, has died at the age of 69. She
was Spain's richest woman.
Inditex SA, the owner of Zara, issued a
statement Friday confirming her death but
did not provide more details and declined
comment via email. Spanish media widely
reported that Mera, a major stakeholder in
Inditex, suffered a stroke while on vacation on
the Mediterranean island of Menorca and died
Thursday night at a hospital in La Coruna, the
city where she was born in Spain's Galicia
region.
Mera founded the first Zara store in 1975 in
La Coruna with her then-husband, Armancio
Ortega. He is listed by Forbes as the world's
third-richest person.
They were originally going to call the store
Zorba after the "Zorba the Greek" movie, but
there was a bar with that name a few blocks
away from the site, so the letters on the
Zorba sign were rearranged to spell out Zara.
The store specialized in low-priced versions of
more expensive popular clothes, and the
formula turned into a success for store
openings across Spain and then
internationally.
Mera held 6.99 percent of Inditex stock,
according to company filings at the Madrid
stock exchange, and her fortune was
estimated by Forbes at $6.1 billion. The
magazine says she was the world's 195th
richest person but was in the No. 1 spot on
its list for "wealthiest self-made woman."
She also became known for voicing opposition
to the current conservative government's
plans to change Spanish abortion laws. Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy is a close ally of the
Catholic Church on moral and social issues,
and has repeatedly said he will revise Spain's
abortion law, though he has not yet tabled
any proposals. The previous Socialist
government passed a law allowing 16 year
olds to get abortions without parental
consent. Mera said that law is "just fine" and
"should be left as it is."
In addition, she opposed government
cutbacks in the name of austerity affecting
Spain's cherished education and national
health care programs.
Besides the Zara chain, Inditex also owns
retailers Bershka, Masssimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull
& Bear, Stradivarius, Uterque and Zara Home.
There are 1,763 Zara stores around the
world, and Inditex has a total of 6,058 stores
and 120,000 employees.

D pics

RIP

Spain lost a gem here