Mayor's Jewelers Inc. was a luxury jeweler with 28 stores in Florida and Atlanta. Rolex watches accounted for about two-fifths of last year's sales. And the stores boast jewelry collections from designers such as Esty, Toni Cavelti and Michelle della Valle.

Henry Birks & Sons Inc. was a leading Canadian luxury jeweler with 39 stores. Its designers have received praise worldwide for their creative designs. The jeweler makes a wide selection of fine jewelry, silver, crystal and timepieces, and has a partnership with one of the largest manufacturers of hand-blown glass in France, Cristallerie Royale de Champagne.

The high-end jewelry companies merged last month to form Birks & Mayor's Inc. But if Mayor's and Birks were a couple of newlyweds, they would be one of those couples that dated for a really long time and got engaged just before family and friends started getting suspicious.

It's no secret that the private, Montreal-based Birks and the publicly traded Tamarac-based Mayor's have been intimately connected since August 2002 when Birks invested $15 million for a 72 percent stake in faltering Mayor's. Now that the jewelry companies have made their union official, investors are wondering if the new entity -- whose share price has slipped almost 14 percent in the month since the merger -- will have a golden future or not.

When Birks took its majority stake three years ago, it came to Mayor's rescue. The company was hemorrhaging money and had lost $83.9 million in fiscal 2001. At the time, one of Mayor's most important suppliers, Rolex, even withheld shipments because of concerns with the company's cash flow.

"It was a pretty incredible investment," said Tom Andruskevich, CEO of Birks & Mayors, and at the time CEO of Birks. "We came in at a time when Mayor's was floundering and I think we created great shareholder value."

Under the Birks management team, Mayor's improved its mix of exclusive and high-end merchandise and aligned its image more closely with that of a luxury retailer. In June, Mayor's reported a profit of $782,000 for fiscal 2005.

Now with 67 stores and about $277 million in expected sales for the current fiscal year, the newly formed Birks & Mayor's will be one of the largest jewelers in the $50 billion North American jewelry market. Anticipating future growth, Mayor's moved from its former location in Sunrise to a custom-built, 50,000-square-foot building in Tamarac.

Under the merger, Birks will learn how Mayor's bolsters store sales, said Ken Gassman, a financial analyst who focuses on the global jewelry industry. Henry Birks & Sons' average revenue per store last year was about $2.5 million, less than half of Mayor's sales per store of $5.1 million in the same period.

And Mayor's will benefit from a stable management team under Andruskevich's leadership, Gassman said, noting there was considerable management turnover when the company consolidated and changed ownership in previous years.

Andruskevich said the combined company has created management efficiencies, such as having a common board of directors. Having easier access to capital also will make it easier for Birks & Mayor's to pursue acquisitions, he said.

The merged company will consider new store openings in existing markets, try to identify opportunities to open one or two new stores per year, and look at expanding internationally, Andruskevich said. He declined to elaborate, saying Birks & Mayor's is working on a strategic business development plan that it hopes to roll out in April or May.

He also would not comment specifically on how Birks & Mayor's plans to accomplish its stated financial targets. But according to Gassman's analysis of Birks' and Mayor's public filings, the company could experience revenue growth of more than 10 percent yearly.

The company's anticipated growth rate is almost double that of the United States' jewelry industry. U.S. jewelry sales are expected to increase 5.6 percent annually over the next five years, according to the Jewelry Industry Research Institute.

Andruskevich said he thinks watch sales in Canada can be improved, and said one of Mayor's recent successes has been increased sales of bridal jewelry, such as rings.

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