The Loveland Reporter-Herald has recently reported that Colorado based Allnutt Funeral Service has been acquired by Service Corporation International and will become part of the company’s Dignity Memorial Network.

Allnutt Funeral Service is a 131 year old company that was started in Greeley, Colorado and now has 13 locations.  According to Allnutt’s President, Rick Allnutt, all employees have retained their positions and will continue to work for the new company.

Again, according to Allnutt, the change in ownership came about as a family decision in who would lead the firm forward as the Allnutt children have taken different career paths.  “It was the right decision at the right time” said Allnutt.

Service Corporation International (SCI) owns over 2000 funeral homes in North America and operates the Dignity Memorial and Neptune Society brands among others.

Funeral Director Daily take:  I admire the Allnutt’s for their decision.  If no family members want to step up and enter funeral service — you have to decide at some point in time — when do we leave the operations to others.  Trust me, as someone who has turned over the reins of a 145-year old company to non-family outsiders, it is not something that is easily done and takes considerable foresight and courage to do.

We’ve talked on these pages before about the consolidation of the industry that will come, in my opinion, at lightning speed moving forward as many young family members are enticed out of the business by other interests.  The question for many will be — “To whom do I leave my life’s work?”

What we haven’t talked about is what types of firms will be those sought after.  I’m not so sure that the small, one man operations will have a great deal of value going forward simply for the fact that not many of our young people want to be on the proverbial 24/7/365 call schedule.  If you have a small firm have you thought about pairing with another small firm and offering both up for sale to a consolidator.  That might be one way to get more value for both.  [wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]