Italian fashion giant Armani plans a major expansion in China with the opening of as many as 50 new retail outlets and investments in other projects, Italian News Agency ANSA reported on Thursday.

Details of the plan were unveiled by Giorgio Armani and his group's commercial director John Hooks and chief financial officer Paolo Fontanelli.

Armani already has 35 of its own stores in 12 Chinese cities and expects to have 40 by the end of the year. It also has 28 sale points in large department stores, according to Armani group's managers. 

The Italian group is currently the sixth largest international fashion company operating in China after Hugo Boss, with 67 stores; Ermenegildo Zenga, 60 stores; Ralph Lauren, 49 stores; Burberry; and Ferragamo.

The new retail outlets will focus on marketing Emporio Armani and Armani Collezioni lines and will be set up as joint ventures with Chinese business partners.

"We will choose these partners by geographic area in order to rationalize our joint ventures to have no more than seven or eight partners," Fontanelli explained.

Armani's other investments in China will center on its Armani Casa (Home) line and in the hotel sector.

The fashion group already has a hotel in Dubai and within two years plans to open one in Milan. Ten other hotels are in the planning stage, the first of which will be built in Shanghai.

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