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 Business News | February 2008 
Wal-Mart Mexico Eateries Get Smoking Ban Reprieve
 Cyntia Barrera - Reuters
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Mexico City - A restaurant chain owned by Mexico's top retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex) won an initial victory against a new smoking ban in the Mexican capital after a judge granted it a reprieve, a newspaper said on Thursday.
El Universal said that Walmex's (WALMEXV.MX) Vips chain was the first restaurant group to file for an injunction against the antismoking bill, which was recently voted by Mexico City's Congress and went into effect this month.
Restaurants, bars and cantinas will have a few months to physically separate the areas between smokers and nonsmokers and install special air-conditioning systems.
Industry officials say the changes mean millions of pesos in additional investment.
The bill also will slap more controls on tobacco sales and cigarette makers in a country where about half of all adults among the 104 million-strong population are smokers or ex-smokers.
According to the paper, Vips claimed the nonsmoking ban limits commercial activity and that no reasons were provided for limiting the smoking area to just 30 percent of the premises. A definitive decision on the matter is pending.
Walmex, a unit of U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N), declined comment. The company has almost 100 Vips restaurants in Mexico City.
Mexico's leading restaurant trade group could not comment immediately.
(Editing by Brian Moss) |
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