Italian fashion group Max Mara is speeding up its expansion in China, Fashion Trend Digest reported.

The group first entered the Chinese market thirty years ago with its first retail store. Max Mara now owns more than 300 stores in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong andTaiwan.

By the end of 2012, the company plans to open twenty more stores countrywide.

Luigi Maramotti, the chairman of the Italian fashion brand, said that the biggest challenge is forecasting the outlook for its China business, which is set to grow by at least one new store a week over the next six months.

Maramotti said, "In China, growth has been always much bigger than we could ever predict. Basically, we could not catch up.”

He said Max Mara would focus on second and third-tier cities after it secured its market share in Beijing and Shanghai.