Beltsville, MD— Ritz Camera Centers, Inc., the country’s largest specialty camera retailer, has filed documents in federal bankruptcy court to place its remaining 400 stores up for auction or liquidation by the end of July.
The 91-year-old Beltsville, Maryland, company had applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 23, 2009 with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. Since then, the chain, which had numbered 800 stores, liquidated 130 Boater’s World Marine Centers stores and closed 400 photo retail locations as part of its initial reorganization plan to regain stability.
Now, according to Reuters, Ritz does not have enough funds to purchase inventory for the fall and to continue daily operations. Ritz Camera “determined for a number of reasons that a plan to exit bankruptcy as a stand-alone going concern business is not a likely option,” Reuters quoted from documents filed on July 7 in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware.
Two potential bidders mentioned in those documents may seek to continue operating under the Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley’s, and The Camera Shop brands. The company hopes to obtain an initial “stalking horse” bid from one of the two interested parties and then hold an auction in which assets, including inventory, leases and intellectual property, would be sold to the highest bidder.
However, Reuters noted that “several provisions, such as waivers of state and local requirements applying to liquidation sales” are included in the filed documents that would permit the once formidable retail chain to hold a going out of business sale immediately.
A hearing on the bidding is scheduled for July 10 at the U.S. Bankruptcy in Wilmington, and Ritz Camera Centers intends to hold the auction on July 20 with a court hearing on July 23 to approve the sale. Once approved by the court, going out of business sales could be held the next day, according to Reuters’s reporting.
Family-run Ritz Camera Centers traces its roots back to 1918 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Its widest expansion occurred through acquisitions in the 1990s during David Ritz’s tenure and culminated in 2001 with 800 locations in more than 40 states. It’s been widely reported that after filing for bankruptcy protection in February, the company raised more than $40 million from its Boater’s World fire sales and was expected to sell some $50 million in closeout photo-imaging inventory. Those sales were conducted by the same joint venture that liquidated Circuit City’s stores.
Ritz Camera Centers declined to comment on this latest chapter in the chain’s history.
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