Barcelona simulates London and Paris by filling bar terraces with gas heaters

Barcelona (ACN).- Back it 1995 Terramed became the first company in the Spanish state to sell gas heaters suitable for out-doors spaces. Back then, people looked at the product strangely. Outdoor gas heater were claimed to be unnecessary for a warm country like Catalonia where winters are not as hard as in Northern Europe and where terraces are easily crowded anyway. However, since the new smoking ban came in,Terramed is selling more than ever. Catalonian restaurants and bars are buying gas heaters in bulk in order to warm up their clients, that have been forced to smoke outside. Sales have increased by 200%.

Manager of Terramad Josep Altés assures that “there won't be any problems for bars and restaurants to purchase outdoor gas heaters” as the company has increased the stock in order to meet the higher demand. In fact, once he found out about the governments' plan to introduce the new ban, Altés increased the stock, a clever move as the demand has now reached record figures. Terramed started importing heaters from California in 1995. At the beginning, selling was difficult. People did not believe that 'out-doors could be heated', says Altés. It was a challenge to convince bar and restaurants owners of the necessity to include these heaters in their terraces, especially in those areas where, during winter, they just closed the out-door spaces. The higher demand for out-door heaters is mostly in Barcelona and its surrounding areas. These kinds of heaters can already be found in some terraces in the Catalan city centre and are expected to be even more usual. In colder areas of the country, such as the north or central parts of Catalonia, the interest in out-door heaters is not yet as high. Barcelona could soon be following the example of other European cities like Paris and London, where restaurants and bars open their terraces in winter and warm up the spaces with out-door heaters. Smokers that are now forced to go out onto the cold street may find this a nice solution to continue their habit. However, apart from non-smokers, those happiest with the new smoking ban right now are without a doubt, suppliers and sellers of outdoor gas-heaters.