Ritz files for bankruptcy, plans to restructure debt

National retail photography giant Ritz Camera will focus on staying in business after filing for bankruptcy protection this week.

The privately held, 800-store chain based in Beltsville, Md., will try to restructure its debt after suffering losses in camera sales, film processing and the Boater's World Marine Centers chain it owns.

It filed for bankruptcy Sunday amid the deepening recession, the switch to digital technology and competition from bigger retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart.

The company had five camera stores in the Charleston area, but closed the one on King Street at the end of January because of high rent and poor performance, according to operators of local Ritz Camera shops.

The remaining four stores, at Citadel Mall, Northwoods Mall, Towne Centre and Moultrie Plaza, remain open, workers at each store said Tuesday.

Boater's World, which sells fishing gear and boating accessories at 130 stores, has three locations in the Charleston area. All three remain open, including the new one that opened in October at Sportsman Island near Daniel Island, workers said Tuesday.

"We are kind of like everybody else," said Bob Hutto of the Sportsman Island store. "Some days are real good and some days aren't."

Camera store customers should not notice any difference during the reorganization process, except for slight delays in certain inventory items, Citadel Mall store manager Patrick Locicero said.

Specific questions about the camera and marine shops were referred to the corporate office in Maryland, where the company appointed Marc Weinsweig from FTI Consulting as its chief restructuring officer.

Weinsweig did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, but in a court affidavit with the bankruptcy filing, he said: "Despite Ritz Camera's continued success in selling cameras and photographic equipment, the loss of revenues and profit margins from the diminution of the photofinishing business proved too much of a burden, coupled with the losses experienced by the Boater's World business in 2008, for Ritz Camera to remain a profitable company under its current structure."

The family-owned camera company started in 1918 as a portrait studio in Atlantic City, N.J., before growing into a retail juggernaut by snapping up regional photography chains over the past three decades. In 2001 it acquired Wolf Camera in a bankruptcy sale.

The company's chief executive officer, David Ritz, a boating enthusiast, diversified the company in the 1980s by establishing Boater's World. When gasoline prices soared last year, Boater's World receipts sank along with power boat sales, which were off about 30 percent last year, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association.

Camera sales slid 4 percent last year to 28.2 million units, according to Gary Pageau, a publisher at the Photo Marketing Association. They are projected to fall to 25.9 million units this year, he said. Ritz said its annual sales as of November were under $1 billion.

Ritz employs about 6,400 workers.

The Washington Post and Associated Press contributed to this report.