Over the next decade, the company plans to open at least one store every year in China, a country whose luxury industry is "not shrinking, but evolving", Alberti said. The company's team of experienced fashion buyers in Milan will help select the brands to be sold at its outlets in China.

"(Despite slowdown), people are still buying, and buying lots (in China). They are just not buying what they used to buy."

He believes the expansion of Luxempourium, mainly to second- and third-tiered cities, could fill the gap in the luxury retail landscape of China created by the closure of stores of other luxury brands.

Zhang Jie, CEO of Luxemporium International Trading (Shanghai) Co, the local arm of the Swiss firm, said an ambitious plan is taking shape. "Luxemporium caters not just to Chinese customers. It starts in China but we want to bring it to other countries in Asia, Europe and America."