40th Anniversary

Our history is a story written by the visionary capacity and entrepreneurial character of our founder, Isak Andic, and by his passion for fashion and people. A pioneer of his time, his legacy has marked the progress of the company, succeeding in making Mango one of Europe’s leading fashion groups.

The origins of Mango date back to the 60s, when the young Isak Andic arrived in Barcelona from Istanbul with his family in search of a second opportunity. His business sense and entrepreneurial instinct led him to buy flowered, hand-embroidered blouses from a sailor in the port and then sell them to stores in the Catalan capital. This product, which brought colour to a grey post-Franco Spain, created the seed of Mango: quality clothing with an original design.

What started with blouses transported in a bag diversified with accessories, clogs and jeans quickly escalated. When the bag was no longer enough, Isak Andic bought a suitcase, which he then replaced with the boot of a car, until he had no choice but to obtain a warehouse to which he added more and more square metres distributed in different locations.

The number of stores also increased. From the stalls Isak I, II and III in the historic Mercadillo Balmes, to the Roxi and Palmera stores in the galleries of Portaferrissa

and Portal de l'Àngel, to Isak Los Genuinos Tejanos at number 57 on Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Isak Andic's travels to detect new fashion trends and discover the world led to the creation of Mango. In Paris, London and Milan he got to know the concept of the monostore and realised the importance of having the same name to give the brand greater coherence and strength. In the Philippines he discovered the mango fruit, a name that is spelled and sounds the same in all languages. Far from being a name that was fortuitous and random, Isak was already thinking of a short name that could be identified in all languages without translation.

In 1984, Isak Andic opened the first store under the Mango name at number 65 of Barcelona’s emblematic Passeig de Gracia. A year later, there were already five Mango stores in Barcelona and one in Valencia. From this moment on, a period of rapid expansion commenced: one hundred stores throughout Spain in just eight years. 

From our first store in Barcelona to being present in all five continents. When Isak baptised the company as Mango, he was already thinking of a short name that could be used in all languages without the need for translation, which shows that from its origins the organisation has had a clear international vocation. Consequently, the name Mango in itself represented a clear aim that responded to Isak Andic’s wish to “have a store in every city in the world”.

In 1992, less than a decade after our creation, we began our international expansion by opening two stores in Portugal. Three years later, we arrived in Asia. And in 2002, we entered China and Australia, taking our brand to five continents.

From 2010 onwards, Mango has promoted the opening of megastores in the world's main shopping cities, such as the flagship stores in Serrano (Madrid), Restauradores (Lisbon) and SoHo (New York). And, in 2022, the company celebrated three decades of international expansion with a dream come true: a store on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Our growth has been accompanied by a complete ecosystem of channels and partners which, together with our network of physical stores and our potent online platform, have reduced distances with our customers, taking the brand to every part of the world.

The product has always been the heart of Mango. We are a company that was created to excite people through fashion. As lovers of art, design and creativity, we have always remained true to our origins and to the city of our birth, in order to seduce people around the world with our Mediterranean style. 

At Mango, we have been inspiring the world for 40 years with our differentiated fashion proposal, characterised by our own style and design. Since our beginnings, the Mango product has been characterised by a quality positioning superior to that of our competitors. 

In the 80s, when we brought colour to a grey post-Franco Spain, we wanted to showcase garments that had never been seen before. We introduced hand-embroidered prints, as well as leather jackets and jeans.

In the 1990s, Mango implemented its own design approach in order to democratise the major trends of the fashion industry and make them accessible to society as a whole. The 90s were characterised by summer fashion collections with handmade crochet garments, as well as leather and Isak's vision to introduce wooden clogs. Our pioneering vision led us to detect the need in the market to create garments with a unique design and a superior quality.

Furthermore, in the 2000s, we launched one of our most characteristic hallmarks: we entered new fashion segments such as office fashion, with garments and stretch fabrics and wool, and started to enter the world of tailoring and garments for occasions and events.

With care, devotion and passion, we are committed to a unique design, quality and handmade creation processes. Our garments are designed at the Hangar Design Centre, where a team of over 500 employees work in the Product department. Creativity and design are at the centre of all our decisions, in order to offer a proposal with its own language and superior quality. At Mango, we design more than 18,000 garments and accessories every year at our Barcelona headquarters, which are distributed around the world.

Under the premise and dream to take our fashion to the entire world, Mango also grew at product level with a diversification process that allowed it to go beyond the female universe: Mango Man (2008), Mango Kids (2013), Mango Teen and Mango Home (2021). Today, our commitment to a superior quality differentiated value proposition is the cornerstone of European fashion, with collections that reaffirm this commitment such as Selection, Capsule and Boglioli. 

Innovation and technology as levers of change

Innovation in the broadest sense of the word, and with a firm conviction that all people have the imagination to think differently and innovate. This has been our motto, taking us down unexplored paths, towards continuous growth and constant transformation. From the creation of a differentiated business model, or the use of cutting-edge technology in logistics, to brand communication with the top celebrities of the moment, or our pioneering commitment to digital transformation.

In 2000, we were the first Spanish company to launch online selling, ten years before our European competitors. In the first year of activity, the online platform, which began with four languages -Spanish, English, French and German- sold on the scale of a small company store. Ten years later, its turnover had exceeded one million euros and by the end of the decade, in 2010, turnover had reached 14 million euros. Today, this channel is now available in 110 markets worldwide and its turnover exceeds 1 billion euros.

Throughout the years, Mango has promoted the online channel with different initiatives, such as the creation of exclusive online collections, improved user-friendliness, the launch of the Mango app and gaining customer loyalty with projects such as Mango likes you in 2019.
 

Our model

Commitment and sustainability as a raison d’être

At Mango we see sustainability as a journey the fashion industry has to make in order to achieve a more just society, and to reduce its impact on its surroundings. A journey we began in 2002 with the creation of our Sustainability department.

Initially the focus of the department was the social sphere, but over the years the environmental aspect has gained prominence. Currently the team is made up of more than 20 people with different profiles and organised into three main areas: environment, circularity and social compliance.

Today, our sustainability roadmap is contained in the Sustainable Vision 2030, which sets out three areas of action:  Committed to the Product, Committed to the Planet and Committed to People, each with specific targets and projects to be achieved.

Commited