SUNING Appliance Co will bring to China the musical instrument retailing brand of Japan's Laox it acquired a year ago as it starts to diversify its business and capitalize on China's vast consumer market.

"It is strategically important for us to form a new landscape in the retailing market," Suning said in an e-mailed statement. "Suning is pressing ahead with our original plan to introduce new categories step by step with resources from Laox which will include the launch of comics, games, toys and models products in the future."

The first MusicVox store on the mainland will be opened in Pudong New Area later this month and another nine are in the pipeline within the next three years.

Suning said it was planning to bring Japanese Life Style stores, a grocery and comics retailing brand, also owned by Laox to major cities. About 100 such stores will open within three years.

The first MusicVox outlet will sell more than 3,500 models of musical instrument of more than 150 brands including Roland, Yamaha and Korg. Audiovisual products and accessories will also be available. China's musical instrument market is set to grow by over 10 percent annually. Sales could reach 24.68 billion yuan (US$3.61 billion) this year and 32.59 billion yuan in 2012, the statement said.