Suitors Get in Line to Buy Schiff Photo : Inquiries Made After Santa Ana Company Files for Bankruptcy

Just days after filing for federal bankruptcy protection and laying off all of its 130 employees, Schiff Photo Mechanics in Santa Ana has lined up several potential buyers for its troubled medical photocopying operations, President Paul G. Amazeen said Friday.

Amazeen, the only remaining employee at Schiff, said the small, 10-year-old company was forced into filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code by falling sales and significant bills incurred for the repair of defective merchandise sold to customers.

Schiff, which had sales of $6 million last year, manufactures equipment that turns video pictures made by ultrasound devices and scanners into permanent “paper” copies.

The bankruptcy petition lists assets of a little more than $4 million and debts of nearly $6 million.

Despite the company’s problems, Amazeen, who became president 10 days ago after serving as the company’s general operations manager, said at least two potential buyers have expressed interest in acquiring Schiff. “There’s no question that we will have a buyer and will get the company going full tilt in a short period of time,” Amazeen said Friday. “We definitely have buyers lined up.”

The bankruptcy filing came just six months after Schiff Photo founder Otto Schiff sold the company to Optische Industrie De Oude Delft, a Dutch corporation commonly known as Oldelft.

Schiff was relieved as company president last week, just days before it filed the bankruptcy petition.

Amazeen said that although Oldelft knew of the company’s problems before buying it last October, the troubles worsened over the last six months. The major problem, he said, was caused by a design flaw in Schiff’s principal product, the Compact Camera.

The flaw, he said, discouraged potential customers from buying the camera, and sales in the last year dropped 25% from previous levels. In addition, Amazeen said the company was required to spend significant sums to repair faulty cameras that it had sold under warranties.