Captain Ahab
Well-known member
Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest camera-store chain in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming the deepening U.S. recession and the consumer transition to digital photography.
Boater’s World
Ritz officials sought to diversify their business by launching Boater’s World, a boating-and-fishing supply retailer, in 1987. The stores are located from Maine to Florida and also in Texas, California, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nevada, according to the unit’s Web site. The rise in fuel prices helped lead to a “sharp” drop in sales at the unit’s stores, Weinsweig said in the filing.
Ritz in 2001 acquired Wolf Camera, the second-largest U.S. camera-store chain with 500 locations in 20 states, for about $85 million. Wolf filed a liquidating Chapter 11 plan that paid the secured bank lender about 50 cents on the dollar, while unsecured creditors received nothing for their $100 million in claims.
Ritz’s 30 largest unsecured creditors without collateral backing their claims are owed about $65.6 million, court papers show. The two biggest unsecured creditors are Nikon Inc., owed $26.6 million, and Canon USA Inc., owed $13.7 million. Ritz owes another $8.4 million to Fuji Photo Film USA Inc., whose affiliate invested about $197 million in Ritz between 1996 and 2001, according to court papers.
Benjamin Ritz opened his first portrait studio in 1918 on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Twenty years later, Benjamin’s younger brother, Edward, opened their first photo processing lab in Washington and later expanded to Baltimore. The company’s wider expansion began in 1969 under Edward’s son, David.
The case is Ritz Camera Centers Inc., 09-10617, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
Boater’s World
Ritz officials sought to diversify their business by launching Boater’s World, a boating-and-fishing supply retailer, in 1987. The stores are located from Maine to Florida and also in Texas, California, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nevada, according to the unit’s Web site. The rise in fuel prices helped lead to a “sharp” drop in sales at the unit’s stores, Weinsweig said in the filing.
Ritz in 2001 acquired Wolf Camera, the second-largest U.S. camera-store chain with 500 locations in 20 states, for about $85 million. Wolf filed a liquidating Chapter 11 plan that paid the secured bank lender about 50 cents on the dollar, while unsecured creditors received nothing for their $100 million in claims.
Ritz’s 30 largest unsecured creditors without collateral backing their claims are owed about $65.6 million, court papers show. The two biggest unsecured creditors are Nikon Inc., owed $26.6 million, and Canon USA Inc., owed $13.7 million. Ritz owes another $8.4 million to Fuji Photo Film USA Inc., whose affiliate invested about $197 million in Ritz between 1996 and 2001, according to court papers.
Benjamin Ritz opened his first portrait studio in 1918 on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Twenty years later, Benjamin’s younger brother, Edward, opened their first photo processing lab in Washington and later expanded to Baltimore. The company’s wider expansion began in 1969 under Edward’s son, David.
The case is Ritz Camera Centers Inc., 09-10617, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
