Tuesday, April 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Casinos are not the only Nevada businesses looking to expand to Mexico.
A Las Vegas chain of pawn shops has the only license in Mexico to operate a private pawn business. It is now seeking a partner in Mexico City.
Steve Mack of Super Pawn Inc. is joining Gov. Bob Miller on a trade mission later this week to Mexico in hopes of opening more doors for Nevada exporters.
The delegation is heavily laced with gaming executives but it includes Mack, owner of Super Pawn, which runs 11 shops in Las Vegas and four in Reno.
Mack said that in Central and South American countries, the pawn industry traditionally has been run by the government. Two years ago, he was awarded a franchise for the entire nation of Mexico and had planned to expand before the peso fell.
He said he will take part in the mission to see if he can "resurrect our opportunity" and find a partner.
"Mexico City can sustain 350 stores," he said.
He wants to have 50 percent of the business owned by Mexican interests. "We're looking for someone who has strong political ties and strength in the real estate industry and the economic wherewithal to sustain the type of expansion we are looking at," he said.
Nevada exported $12.9 million in goods to Mexico in 1995, up about $500,000 from the previous year but down from $24.6 million in 1993. Cunningham said that's due to the recent troubles with the peso.
Nevada's biggest exports are stone, clay and glass, which accounted for $4.2 million of the exports. They were followed by nonelectrical machines at $2.6 million, electronic products at $1.4 million and food and related products at $1.1 million.
Others involved in the mission include Dale Roesener of Southern Nevada Equipment Corp., which hopes to find a market for its used construction equipment, and Scott Nash of Crown Laboratories of Las Vegas, which produces nutrient supplements for infants and the elderly. Nash is meeting with the Ministry of Health in an attempt to get clearance to sell his product in Mexico.
Also on the trip will be Ray Vega, a Las Vegas businessman who is honorary counsul of Mexico for Southern Nevada.
Not invited was Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, chairman of the state commissions on economic development and tourism.
"It's pointless for me to go if the governor is going," Hammargren said today. "It's not a matter of not being invited. How am I going to get time as acting governor if I just tag along with him?"
Hammargren said when he was elected, people said the governor would be afraid to travel outside Nevada, leaving the lieutenant governor in charge. But Hammargren noted that the governor has made extensive trips outside Nevada.
"He hasn't been afraid to leave the state in my hands," Hammargren said. "My goals are to be supportive."
Although the state Departments of Tourism and Economic Development are putting together the details of the trip, Miller "initiated this one," according to his executive assistant, Bob Walsh.
Miller, according to Walsh, has had a standing invitation to meet with President Ernesto Zedillo. "We saw this as an opportune time. It would be silly for us just to meet with the president so we are sharing the opportunity with other folks."
The governor begins the mission in Monterrey Friday by touring the plant of Vitro Corp., a glass manufacturing firm. Walsh said Vitro has 10,000 employees in the United States and 25,000 in Mexico and South America and it wants to enter the Nevada market. "They wanted to meet the governor," Walsh said.
There's a meeting set with members of the Mexican cabinet and a cocktail reception to be hosted by U.S. Ambassador James Jones. Miller's meeting with Zedillo is Monday.
Gaming representatives on the trip include Bud Seeley of Hilton Corp.; Bobby Baldwin or Barry Shier of Mirage Resorts; Terrance Lanni of MGM Grand; Dan Reichartz of Caesars Sheraton-Desert Inn; Bob McMonigle of International Game Technology; Hector Mon of Harrah's and a representative from Bally.
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