Canadian Direct Cremation provider to expand

June 3, 2022/Business, Cremation/

We learned in this article from Saltwire that Toronto, Ontario, based direct cremation provider Eirene is set to expand their services to the province of Nova Scotia.

In business for two years in Ontario the provider offers a cremation package that includes death certificates, transportation, and estate administration support in addition to the removal of the deceased and delivery of the cremated remains in person to a home. Eirene seems to have been moving their concept forward these past two years at a singular package price of $2,500 (US$ 1,975).

CEO and founder Mallory Greene made the following comments when asked why Nova Scotia?

The regulatory environment is modern
The cremation rate within the province is over than 80%
The current average price in Nova Scotia is $4,000 (US$3,160), “so we know our services are affordable”.

In the article Greene also explains a couple of reasons why she thinks Eirene has been successful:

“Eirene exists to provide a modern approach to funeral services, and I think it became quite clear that we needed modern approaches during the pandemic”
“We’re really focused on simplicity, specifically with our pricing. We have one package, it is absolutely everything you would need for cremation without a memorial service and even a few extra things. For example, we don’t charge mileage, we offer our free obituary website, and there’s no upselling.”

Again, according to the article, Eirene will be partnering with a local crematorium and transfer partners throughout Halifax to keep operating costs low.

Here is the website for Eirene.

Funeral Director Daily take: Good for these guys. I continue to see online direct cremation firms finding their geographic footing all over North America. Whether it is Eirene in Canada, or Lumen Cremation in Nashville, or Solace Cremation on the West Coast, or Tulip Cremation in their many locations across the country there is a movement being made to stake out one’s geographical footprint and hope to dominate going forward in that specific market.

During the 1990’s and up to about 2010 I witnessed the same business phenomena happening in the cell phone coverage areas of North America and I believe that direct cremation will follow that same pattern. One of my friends who I served with on a regional board of Wells Fargo served as CEO of one of these companies. His company acquired other cell phone companies until they were eventually acquired by Verizon.

Small start-up or existing land-line telephone companies procured areas of cell-phone coverage areas and then, over time, consolidation occurred bringing us to the Big 3 that we have today — AT & T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The economies of scale that those acquisitions provided to the Big 3 have brought us to where we are today with cell service providers and I predict that the same will happen with direct cremation firms.

I’m of the opinion that over the next several years direct cremation will become more popular as a means of disposition in North America and we will see the same phenomena (acquisitions) for individual company growth occur. I think it will be a wild ride to be a part of.

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