Grace period over smoking has boosted sales at bars and restaurants taking advantage of transition

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According to a recent survey commissioned by the National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health (STTV), the total ban on smoking in Finnish restaurants introduced from June neither decreased nor increased the sales of restaurant products over the second half of last year.
      The purpose of the survey, conducted among restaurant owners, was to monitor the effects of the new tobacco legislation on the restaurant industry.
      The number of respondents was 68.
      Some 30% of all respondents estimated that the new legislation that was introduced from June 1st 2007 had led to a decline in their total sales, while 17% contrastingly reported that their sales had increased over the period of July through December 2007.
     
The sales records of restaurants indicate that in those establishments that sought and received a two-year grace period, the sales of alcohol and food have increased - at last temporarily.
      According to the statistics released by STTV, the spending in those restaurants has increased clearly more than that in all Finnish restaurants on average.
      Last June, bars and restaurants had three alternative courses of action when the new law came in: a complete ban on smoking, constructing an area for smokers in line with the new regulations, or applying for a two-year transitional grace period.
      The two-year delay was granted to those establishments that had the sort of structures in place that met previous rules, in the sense of preventing the passage of smoke to a smoke-free area.
      For example in Helsinki, dozens of restaurants were granted a two-year extension for smoking. One of them is Baker’s in the city centre, in which smoking is allowed in the street-level café.
      Restaurant manager Markku Valkamo from Baker’s reports that particularly the sales of food have increased in the smoking area since last July.
     
”We made substantial investments in ventilation in 2004, which is why it was reasonable to apply for a transition period over smoking”, Valkamo explains.
      Valkamo notes further that clients are happy about the possibility to have their coffee or beer in the smoking area. Moreover, it has brought even more customers to the establishment.
      Currently, some 90 per cent of Finnish restaurants are entirely smoke-free, while they account for just 75% of overall sales. Typically, those establishments that sought and were granted a grace period are large.
     
The increase in the overall sales of Finnish restaurants slowed down at the end of 2007. Over the period from October through December it was around four per cent, while from July through September it had been below 3 %.
      In comparison, during the first months of 2007 when the amendment to the law on smoking in public areas had not yet come into effect, the sales of Finnish restaurants grew at a year-on-year rate of 5 to 8 per cent.
      However, STTV’s Lennart Wahlfors says that the reduction in sales was mainly attributable to the slowing overall economic trend.
      Wahlfors notes further that the decline in sales in July through September was partly a consequence of the cooler weather in the summer of 2007 compared with the summer of 2006. In the summer, the weather has a powerful impact on restaurant and bar sales.
     
Perhaps the most dramatic changes noted in the survey are those in establishments who went the smoking booth route: here sales of food plummeted, while at the same time sales of alcoholic beverages other than beer went skywards.
      Many of these places were not exactly "restaurants" in the eating sense of the term to begin with, and are even less so now.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ban on smoking has already cut pub sales by 10% (12.2.2008)
  Social Affairs and Health Minister seeks total ban on smoking in bars and restaurants (3.6.2004)
  Smoking legislation has not driven customers away from downtown bars (12.2.2008)
  Cigarettes to be stubbed out in Finnish bars and restaurants tonight (31.5.2007)
  Health organisations demand smoke-free restaurants (4.6.2004)

Links:
  National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health (STTV)

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