New Balance plans to open another 200 normal stores this year in China to cash in on booming consumption and grow its business by over 50 percent annually.

Micheal Wellman, managing director of New Balance Trading (China) Co, at the weekend in Shanghai said the company plans to boost sales aggressively by 53.5 percent in 2010 from a year earlier.

The Boston-based firm said its core business jumped more than 80 percent annually in 2009 and its overall business, including the casual sector, rose 41 percent.

Wellman at the opening ceremony of its second experience store on the Chinese mainland in Shanghai said we are so excited about the Chinese market, which has seen rapid growth especially after the Beijing Olympics.

It opened the first experience store in Beijing last year. An experience store is bigger and sells more products than a normal outlet of which the firm has about 450 in China at present.