Holiday on ice flops for jewelers.

• Position: Jewelry sales fall

Diamonds may be forever, and so this recession must seem to purveyors of jewelry.

Nationally, jewelry sales declined by more than 11% in 1991, forcing widespread bankruptcies and store closings. Among the companies hit hard are Dallas-based Zale's and Akron, Ohio-based Ratners Group, which operates Osterman's and Kay Jewelers.

At Wilmington-based Reeds Jewelers, business hasn't sparkled, either. Reeds' stock has traded between $3 and $4.75 in the past year, down from a high of $10.63 in 1989 and well below the $8.50 price when the company went public in 1986. Still, analysts say, Reeds is showing staying power.

"Reeds is healthy," Wheat First Butcher & Singer analyst Tom Thomson says. "But the best way to describe the company is that it's stagnant." Reeds' overall sales have leveled off at about $50 million during the past three years after the company nearly quadrupled in size between 1985 and '89 |The Family Jewels, August 1989~. It expects to end 1992 with 67 stores in 12 states...