CHARLOTTE, N.C. –
North Carolina specialty
chain Queen City Audio, Video & Appliances has
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
According to the
voluntary petition,
filed with a U.S.
Bankruptcy Court
here earlier this
month, the six-store
chain has assets
of between $0 and
$50,000 and debts
of between $1 million
and $10 million.
The company,
which employs about
80 staffers, continues to operate under CEO Roddy
Player as a debtor-in-possession (DIP) as it looks to
reorganize. Player and three family members together
control 100 percent of the company’s stock.
Queen City’s largest creditors, and the amount of
their claims, include:
• Whirlpool, $2.5 million;
• GE, $598,384;
• Bosch Home Appliances, $354,634;
• Subzero/Wolf, $222,285;
• The Charlotte Observer, $168,967;
• Haier America, 86,076; and
• Warrantech, $70,845.
Queen City opened in 1952 as a TV
repair shop founded by Roddy’s father,
Woody Player. At its peak in the mid-
2000s the company operated 14 stores
throughout North Carolina following a
period of aggressive growth under then-
CEO Chip Player.
The former NATM dealer left the buying
organization in 2010 to join the Nationwide
Marketing Group, where it had
been a member through much of the
1980s and 1990s.
At the time, Roddy Player told TWICE
that high unemployment within Charlotte’s
banking industry, and the consolidation of
four of its stores, had impacted sales.
On Feb. 15 the court gave Queen City
a two-week extension of its deadline for
filing statements of its financial affairs.
