http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/03/23/daily51.htmlRitz Camera gets bankruptcy OK to sell 400 stores
Portland Business Journal - by Barton Eckert Contributing Writer
Ritz Camera Center Inc., which has seven stores in the Portland area, has taken another step in its bankruptcy reorganization efforts.
The Beltsville-based privately held chain has won the approval of rules governing the sale of assets at 400 stores it plans to shutter. Ritz has more 1,000 locations in 45 states.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath ruled in Wilmington, Del., that bidding procedures for the stores Ritz wants to close are fair. She also approved Ritz's request to borrow $85 million from Wachovia Bank to help fund operations as it shuts the stores.
In court papers the company said it wants liquidators to bid for rights to oversee the sales by March 30. If more than one acceptable bid is received, it will hold an auction April 1. Ritz scheduled an April 2 hearing to approve the sale.
Ritz will have as many as 375 stores after the sales.
Walrath gave Ritz permission on March 19 to hire Gordon Brothers to shut down the company's 130-store Boater’s World chain.
In 1987 Ritz launched Boater’s World, a boating-and-fishing supply retailer with 137 stores now operating. A drop in consumer spending and slumping sales at Boater’s World prompted the bankruptcy filing. The rise in gas prices and other factors led to a “sharp” drop in sales at Boater’s World’s stores, Weinsweig said in filing.
In 2001 Ritz acquired Wolf Camera, which had sought bankruptcy protection. Ritz began with a single store in Atlantic City in 1918. Its retail brands today include Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley’s and The Camera Shop.
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