It’s business as usual at web merchant Ritz Interactive Inc. even though bricks-and-mortar retailer Ritz Camera Centers Inc. has filed for bankruptcy.
Ritz Interactive, No. 114 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, operates 14 e-commerce sites and is a separate and independent company from Ritz Camera Centers, which maintains about 800 stores in 40 states and operates the Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley’s and Camera Shops brands.
“We do some fulfillment and distribution with Ritz Camera, but their situation won’t have much of an impact on us,” says Ritz Interactive chief marketing officer Andre Brysha. “We’re pretty diversified and get our inventory from many sources, including Ritz Camera.”
Ritz Interactive, which reported a drop in web sales of 3.6% to $107 million in 2008 from $111 million in 2007, has been using Ritz Camera as a supplier of merchandise since 1999, says Brysha. “We may have some short-term interruptions, but the long term is fine,” he says.
Ritz Camera filed for bankruptcy Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The retailer, which generated annual sales of about $1.2 billion, listed assets and debt of under $500 million in its Chapter 11 court filing.
In the filing, Ritz Camera chief operating officer Marc Weinsweig says the chain is filing for bankruptcy because of weak consumer spending, higher operating costs, including unprofitable stores, and higher-than-expected losses at Boaters World, a boating products chain Ritz Camera launched in 1987.
Ritz Camera intends to continue operating its stores and work to tap a secured $85 million line of credit as the company restructures under the conditions set by the bankruptcy court, Weinsweig says in the filing.
Ritz Camera is the latest chain retailer to file for bankruptcy. Other recent chains and online retailers filing for Chapter 11 include Circuit City Stores Inc., The Parent Co., Fortunoff, KB Toys Inc., iFloor Inc. and Lenox Inc.
Back...
