Isak Andic receives the 8th Kingdom of Spain Entrepreneurial Career Award

• Presented by His Majesty the King at a ceremony at the IESE Business School in Barcelona.
• After almost four decades, Andic has managed to turn Mango into one of the leading international groups in the fashion industry with close to 2,700 stores in more than 115 markets worldwide.

His Majesty the King today presented the 8th Kingdom of Spain Entrepreneurial Career Award to Isak Andic, the founder and non-executive chairman of Mango. The organising bodies of this Award are the Círculo de Empresarios, the Cercle d’Economia and the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos.

The award ceremony took place in the Aula Magna of the IESE Business School in Barcelona. Chaired by His Majesty the King, it was also attended by Jordi Hereu, Minister of Industry and Tourism; Carlos Prieto, Government Delegate in Catalonia; Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona and Roger Torrent, Minister of Enterprise and Employment, among other authorities. Also present were the presidents of the three organisations organising the Award; Manuel Pérez-Sala, President of the Círculo de Empresarios; Jaume Guardiola, President of the Cercle d’Economia and Andrés Arizkorreta, President of the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos.

Manuel Pérez-Sala spoke on behalf of the organising bodies, highlighting that “with his work, effort, capacity for innovation and strategic vision, he has been able to build an exemplary company, a leader in its sector”. He also referred to the context in which this career has been possible, pointing out that “Spain is a liberal democracy, expressed in the form of a parliamentary monarchy, and in a liberal democracy, electoral democracy is combined with respect for civil liberties, in an exercise of separation and balance of powers that represents the rule of law”. He added that “entrepreneurs prefer encouragement to prohibition, collaboration to submission, discretion to finger-pointing and freedom to interventionism”.

According to the minutes of the Jury, the awarding of the Prize to Isak Andic was decided “by virtue of his contribution to the economic and social development of Spain over several decades of effort and work, creating jobs, internationalising his activities and contributing to the improvement of his environment and the well-being of the country. Reasons that make it a benchmark for future generations”.

The award-winner thanked the organisers for the award, emphasising that “this recognition is not for Isak Andic, it is for Mango. Because Mango is much more than one person, as it is the effort and work of each and every one of the people who have worked and continue to work on the project. This is the secret to our success: our shared culture”. He continued with a wish: “That the Mango project, which was created in a humble manner in Barcelona more than forty years ago, can serve to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit among young people and the aspiration to help create prosperity for many people and families and serve society”. And he concluded with the following statement: "With more initiatives and more entrepreneurs, I am convinced that our country will be stronger and more united. And our society will be better”.

The Jury that awarded the Prize was made up of distinguished representatives of Spanish civil society. Under the chairmanship of Santiago Muñoz Machado, Spanish academic and director of the Royal Spanish Academy, the Jury included Luis Mateo Díez (member of the RAE), Adela Asúa Batarrita (former vice-president of the Constitutional Court), José María Bermúdez de Castro (paleo-anthropologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana - National Centre for Research on Human Evolution), Núria Cabutí (CEO of Penguin Random House), José María Guibert (Rector of the University of Deusto), Sara de la Rica (Director of the ISEAK Foundation), Elvira Roca Barea (writer and essayist) and Miquel Roca Junyent (founding partner and President of RocaJunyent). The Secretary General of the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos, Enrique Portocarrero, acted as Secretary of the Jury.

Isak Andic (Istanbul, 1953), after almost four decades, has managed to turn Mango into one of Europe’s leading fashion groups. Andic moved from Turkey with his family at the age of fourteen and, at seventeen, he began his career selling t-shirts to order until he managed to open his first Mango store in Barcelona in 1984. Today, Mango has close to 2,700 stores in more than 115 countries and more than 15,500 employees. In 2023, the company achieved record sales, reaching a turnover of more than 3.1 billion euros (15% more than the previous year) and doubled its net profit to 172 million euros. 

In addition, the company, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024, presented its new Strategic Plan last Monday, called 4E, which includes the business priorities until 2026. The levers of the 4E Plan, Elevate, Expand, Earn and Empower, will be key to achieving the objectives set, which include exceeding 4 billion euros in turnover by 2026. To this end, the company will reinforce its differentiated value proposition and will promote an expansion plan that foresees the opening of more than 500 stores.