BELTSVILLE, Md. – All 129 Boater’s World Marine Centers are to close by the end of June as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization by parent Ritz Camera Centers Inc.
The photo processing company, based in Beltsville, Md ., filed for bankruptcy protection on Feb. 22, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. (The case is Ritz Camera Centers Inc., 09-10617.)
At the time, Ritz Camera Centers blamed the ongoing recession and the consumer transition to digital photography, according to Bloomberg News. Court papers indicated the 91-year-old company has total assets of less than $500 million against total debts of about the same amount. By comparison, Ritz last year posted total revenue of nearly $1 billion.
In recent months, the company has shrunk from more than 1,000 Ritz Camera shops nationwide to about 800 – including shops in Newport, Providence, Warwick and North Attleboro – while its Boater’s World subsidiary has shrunk from 250 stores to 129 shops in 27 states.
Last week, Judge Mary Walrath approved the parent company’s plan to liquidate the entire Boater’s World subsidiary, Bloomberg News reported. Ritz, founded in 1918, also filed plans to close more than half its remaining camera stores. It was not immediately clear which local stores might be affected.
Locally, Boater’s World has three stores:
• at 684 Kingstown Road in the Wakefield section of South Kingstown;
• at 945 Bald Hill Road (Route 2) in Warwick;
• and at 150 Highland Ave. in Seekonk, one of four Massachusetts locations. (The others are in Danvers, Hyannis and Plymouth.)
The going-out-of-business sale includes “over $100 million of the very best in boating, fishing and water-sports products, plus footwear, apparel and accessories,” at up to 30 percent off their original prices, according to liquidation managers Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Group.
“For the weekend boating enthusiast and professional alike, this sale is an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of truly significant savings on a huge assortment of famous brand boating and fishing equipment and more,” said Michael Keefe, president and CEO of the Northbrook, Ill.-based Hilco Merchant Resources. “We don’t expect this exciting sale to last very long.”
Brand names listed on the chain’s Web site include Daiwa, Furuno, Garmin, Humminbird, Icom, Lowrance, Northstar, Okuma, Penn, ProMariner, Raymarine, Shakespeare, Sony and Uniden. The available inventory ranges from electronics to anchors, fishing rods to fish finders, rain suits to running shoes, the liquidation managers said. Store fixtures and equipment will also be sold.
Ritz Camera Centers Inc. – founded in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1918 – is the parent of Boater’s World Marine Centers. For more information, visit www.RitzPix.com or www.BoatersWorld.com.
