Calumet Photo Files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

[Canon Rumors]

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<p>Calumet Photographic, a 75 year old chain of retail stores in the United States and Europe has filed chapter 7 bankruptcy. The European stores will remain operational, but all the US stores are closed.</p>
<p><strong>From Calumet Photo’s Facebook Page

</strong><em>“After 75 years of business it is with a heavy heart that we announce our immediate closing in the United States (our European stores will continue). It has been a joy to share our passion for photography with you all of these years. We’ll miss each other and we’ll miss all of our customers. Thank you for everything.”<strong>

</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Employees were not warned</strong>

Apparently Calumet gave employees no warning of the closure and loss of their jobs. PetaPixel has an <a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/exclusive-calumet-employee-reveals-happening-behind-scenes/" target="_blank">exclusive interview with a Calumet employee</a>.</p>
<p><em>“According to my coworker, management was notified of this decision late last night, and told not to open for work the next day. My friend is still waiting to hear when/if he will be allowed to go back to the store and collect some personal belongings left on his desk.”</em></p>
<p>Our best wishes go out to all the Calumet employees in the US, I’ve always been treated well when I’ve visited.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/calumetphoto-us-declared-bankruptcy-gave-employees-zero-notice/" target="_blank">Read More at PetaPixel</a></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">c</span>r</strong></p>

 

[Rienzphotoz]

It is sad when companies that have been around for a long time suddenly disappear ... but its a shame that the owners of the company gave no warning to their employees ... hope the employees are rewarded well and find better jobs.

 

[unfocused]

Yes, very unfortunate for the employees, the company and for the market itself.

While I hate to profit from someone's misfortune, I looked up Chap. 7. That's used for liquidations, rather than reorganization. If the stores liquidate their stock in a public sale, I may be making a trip to Chicago. Although I suppose it is more likely that they will sell everything to a third party.

 

[unfocused]

Whoa! I should have looked at the court filing first. They are listing less than $50,000 in assets. I'm guessing there are individuals on this forum (not me) that have more than that in Canon equipment.

I don't know how this works in the camera retail business. Is it customary for a supplier to retain ownership of the stock until it is sold?

Maybe it will be the Canon refurbished store that gets all this stock back?

 

[East Wind Photography]

maybe assets are all on credit and need to be returned. they probobly did not technically own much. got over extended and couldnt pay their loans.

 

[botw]

Whoa! I should have looked at the court filing first. They are listing less than $50,000 in assets. I'm guessing there are individuals on this forum (not me) that have more than that in Canon equipment.

I don't know how this works in the camera retail business. Is it customary for a supplier to retain ownership of the stock until it is sold?

Maybe it will be the Canon refurbished store that gets all this stock back?

That 50,000 is in 1000s, so really means $50 million in assets.

 

[danski0224]

Yes, very unfortunate for the employees, the company and for the market itself.

While I hate to profit from someone's misfortune, I looked up Chap. 7. That's used for liquidations, rather than reorganization. If the stores liquidate their stock in a public sale, I may be making a trip to Chicago. Although I suppose it is more likely that they will sell everything to a third party.

Giving no notice to the rank and file employees is becoming more common. Less likely to be things like theft on the way out.

As far as "bankruptcy sales" go, I have yet to attend one as essentially a retail customer that has any "deals". I don't even bother anymore.

 

[unfocused]

Whoa! I should have looked at the court filing first. They are listing less than $50,000 in assets. I'm guessing there are individuals on this forum (not me) that have more than that in Canon equipment.

I don't know how this works in the camera retail business. Is it customary for a supplier to retain ownership of the stock until it is sold?

Maybe it will be the Canon refurbished store that gets all this stock back?

That 50,000 is in 1000s, so really means $50 million in assets.

Look at the form http://www.photobusinessforum.com/images/calumetphoto_case_14-08908.pdf. The box they checked says $0 to $50,000.

 

[jhanken]

Look at the form http://www.photobusinessforum.com/images/calumetphoto_case_14-08908.pdf. The box they checked says $0 to $50,000.

I think this pdf filing is only for the online business calumetphoto.com, the parent or the stores business was probably a different entity. Here is an article from the Chicago Tribune that seems to make more sense.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-13/business/chi-calumet-photographic-closes-20140313_1_chapter-7-bankruptcy-protection-facebook-page-facebook-and-twitter

 

[jeffa4444]

Calumet has group accounts and UK accounts filed at companies house in the UK. The business has operations in Germany, Holland and the UK. They are independent of the US operations.
They recently had a stand at The Photography Show, Birmingham which was very well attended and they did brisk business.

 

[rs]

Whoa! I should have looked at the court filing first. They are listing less than $50,000 in assets. I'm guessing there are individuals on this forum (not me) that have more than that in Canon equipment.

I don't know how this works in the camera retail business. Is it customary for a supplier to retain ownership of the stock until it is sold?

Maybe it will be the Canon refurbished store that gets all this stock back?

When Jessops went under in the UK, almost all of their stock was owned by the distributors/manufacturers, and was reclaimed. As far as I know, only items such as Jessops branded filters and bags were left.

 

[Steve]

Giving no notice to the rank and file employees is becoming more common. Less likely to be things like theft on the way out.

Nah, there's still plenty of theft, its just theft of wages owed. According to the interview, Calumet was bouncing paychecks and then locked everyone out of the stores when they closed. There's still customer cameras that went in for sensor cleanings locked up in some store fronts.

 

[RGomezPhotos]

I heard that they will be selling most of their assets to BHPhotoVideo and Adorama. Don't get your hopes up to high about getting a deal....

 

[Zv]

From the interview of the rental manager "CE" it seems they just didn't have stock in the end and customers left unhappy.

This happened to me recently in another camera store. I went in to use up a gift card balance. Saw a filter I liked (just a clear bog standard plain normal one) and the guy turns around and says they had no stock. That's bread and butter man! A filter!! Come on!

So what did I do? Bought it off amazon $10 cheaper. Do I wanna go back to the camera store? Nope.

I hope the ex employees find good jobs. I can't even imagine the stress they're under right now.

 

[klickflip]

TBH calumet uk stores aren't doing much better , since they changed from KJP - anyone remember that? - since Calumet it's been downhill all the way. Decent staff left and now mostly uninterested ex students and older staff looking bored that don't know half of what I read up on with little real world experience to add into discussions. Plus many basic items have to be ordered in especially.. recently I needed a couple more standard stands and white backgrounds.. not in stock!!!
and enquired about the sony A7r , was told better go to john lewis !!
Crazy for a pro shop. Seems like they stock bags and tripods mainly now.
Times are a changing I really don't know where to buy equipment from these days apart from the Flash centre for Elinchrom which have awesome customer service and knowledge.
As some one mentioned this could really affect Bowens lighting as Calumet as a major distributer in UK / Europe.

RIP calumet .. globally in 2 years

 

[pdirestajr]

Sad news. As a New Yorker I routinely chose Calumet over B&H and Adorama because of their staff. There is just something about "taking a number" in Adorama, or the whole "system" at B&H that always feels a little cold to me. The guys at Calumet in NY were always helpful and smart. My office is also in the same building as theirs, so it will be extra sad to lose them. No more playing with lenses at lunch time...

 

[jrista]

I think Calumet has had enough financial problems that they are having a tough time getting supply from manufacturers. That would explain why you generally have to special order everything from them...they can't get any supply until it's a guaranteed sale.

I think management, somewhere along the line, massively screwed something up, and it's ultimately going to cost the company everything. Kind of sad. So many brick and mortar camera stores have gone up in smoke recently. We used to have both Mikes Camera and Wolf Camera here in Colorado. Wolf Camera decided to pick a fight with Canon...obviously, they lost, and they are completely gone now, bankrupt.

Mikes Camera moved into most of the old Wolf Camera stores, but they really don't look all that much healthier these days...they too are trying to push photo classes and training at $100+ a pop, print services, any kind of repeatable service they can think of, because they don't seem to be able to move physical product. (And it's no surprise, they mark up the prices on most things astronomically high, which isn't competitive with online, and because they get so few sales, they feel they can't reduce prices, etc. etc. down the rat hole...)

Maybe we'll see camera manufacturers start to act like smartphone manufacturers. Instead of these general purpose stores that sell all brands, we'll see the Canon Store, and the Nikon Store, and the Sony Store.

 

[preppyak]

Well, and Calumet also made the mistake of buying up the Penn Camera stores in DC. I think they did other similar things in other markets; which means they had a lot of stores to cover, and some in areas where they werent needed. Buying up a failed business and not making it work certainly didnt slow their end

 

[unfocused]

Look at the form http://www.photobusinessforum.com/images/calumetphoto_case_14-08908.pdf. The box they checked says $0 to $50,000.

I think this pdf filing is only for the online business calumetphoto.com, the parent or the stores business was probably a different entity. Here is an article from the Chicago Tribune that seems to make more sense.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-13/business/chi-calumet-photographic-closes-20140313_1_chapter-7-bankruptcy-protection-facebook-page-facebook-and-twitter

Yeah, you're certainly correct. That helps explain things, as I couldn't imagine how they could only have $50,000 in assets. Thanks.

 

[Vivid Color]

Well, and Calumet also made the mistake of buying up the Penn Camera stores in DC. I think they did other similar things in other markets; which means they had a lot of stores to cover, and some in areas where they werent needed. Buying up a failed business and not making it work certainly didnt slow their end

I work in downtown DC--within easy walking distance of the Calumet DC Store--and I'm not sure that I would say that Calumet made a mistake when it bought up the Penn Camera stores in DC. I think it was a good move that in the end was poorly executed. For one, they did not buy up all of the Penn Camera stores, only three of them, and each in a distinct geographic market. And from the time they bought them until today, there was/is relatively little competition from other photographic stores in the area. As far as I can tell, with the demise of Ritz camera, there are only two other camera stores in downtown DC. There is a well-stocked camera store in Loudoun County, but it's like 30 miles west of the city. For an area with the population size and relative affluence that we have here, Calumet should've been able to make a very good go of it. To me, they had a number of problems. Their stores always seemed to be significantly under stocked. And they would be out of stock of just the simplest things. That said, I always found the employees to be very helpful. For me, the biggest loss is going to be a local place that can produce quality large-size prints.