Ritz Camera latest company to file for bankruptcy
As the economic crisis continues to swallow up companies, America's largest digital camera retailer Ritz Camera, has become the latest to file for bankruptcy.
The 91-year-old company, which had sales of almost $1 billion in 2008, has both assets and debt of less than $500 million, according to Chapter 11 papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
As much as $65 million is documented as being owed. Slumping sales and an overall drop in consumer spending are blamed for the downfall.
The largest creditors named in Ritz Camera's bankruptcy documents are Nikon (owed $26.6 million), Canon (owned $13.7 million), and Fuji Photo Film (owned $8.4 million).
The advent of digital photography, which ended enormous profits from photo finishing, proved too much of a burden, coupled with the losses experienced by the Boater's World business, Marc Weinsweig, the closely held company's chief restructuring officer, said in court papers.
Ritz had acquired the nation's then-second largest camera store chain about eight years ago. The company bought Wolf Camera after it declared bankruptcy in 2001.
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