Zara co-founder Rosalia Mera dies

DPA/Madrid

Rosalia Mera, co-founder of the fashion group Inditex which includes the retail giant Zara, has died at age 69, Inditex said yesterday.

Forbes magazine has estimated Mera’s fortune at 4.6bn euros ($6.1bn), making her Spain’s richest woman.

Mera (pictured on the right) suffered a brain haemorrhage while vacationing with her daughter on Menorca Island on Wednesday. She was flown to hospital in La Coruna in her north-western home region of Galicia, where she died overnight on Friday.

Mera left school at age 11 to work as a seamstress. In 1966, she married Amancio Ortega. The two set up a small textile company that grew to include the chains Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Stradivarius.

The couple had two children. They divorced in 1986.

Ortega has a fortune of 43bn euros, making him one of the world’s richest men.

Faithful to her modest origins, Mera had criticised government budget cuts to social programmes. She also opposed measures to restrict access to abortion.