Private Equity company Epiris to sell a “Structured Minority interest” in Pure Cremation

February 12, 2026/Cremation, Finance/

I’ve watched the growth of direct cremation provider and preneed cremation business Pure Cremation from a start-up to, in my opinion, the most profitable investment in Death Care over the past decade. According to the Sun Life “Cost of Dying Report” in Great Britain, direct cremation has grown from a 2-3% market share in Great Britain in 2018-2019 to 21% in 2025. (See that report here).

And, in my opinion, it was the founding and marketing of Pure Cremation that led to that gain. In essence, they created a dynamic through advertising and public relations where 76% of the public are now aware of direct cremations in that country and their advertising helped make an entire nation aware of the now commonly known “No-fuss” funeral.

According to this Funeral Director Daily article, private equity company Epiris purchased Pure Cremation back in 2023 for a reported US$ 533 million. According to the same article, Epiris announced in October of 2025 that they would be putting at least a portion of the company up for sale and make some type of exit. At that time it was estimated that the company would be worth from US$ 660 million to US$ 925 million.

We recently learned that Epiris has made a strategic disposition of some of their ownership to Centerbridge Partners. Here’s what is said in a Pulse 2.0 article (that we are not able to link), “Epiris announced Epiris Fund III and Pure Cremation CEO Dean Lamble have agreed to sell a structured minority interest in Pure Cremation to Centerbridge Partners, which will invest across both the company’s debt and equity instruments. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2026.”

The Pulse 2.0 article also made this comment, “Centerbridge’s investment brings an additional capital partner while Epiris said it will remain in control of the business. Epiris described the transaction as enabling a strong outcome for its investors while supporting the next phase of growth for Pure.”

Here is a media release from Epiris on the transaction.

A Little History of Pure Cremation — (These exerpts are taken from the German publication 36Kr but written from a Chinese author). To read the full article click here. The author thinks that there is still room to build a much higher valuation for the company. . . it’s an interesting read on the potential future. . . which, in that author’s opinion, is somewhat founded on preneed insurance. Here’s just a small part of the article.

“The founder of Pure Cremation is Bryan Powell, an experienced mortician. Initially, he had no intention of starting a business or “disrupting” the industry because no one in the UK thought there was anything wrong with the current mainstream funeral form. In fact, many people considered the current mainstream funeral form in the UK a “living fossil,” which completely retained the imprints of the Victorian era 200 years ago, being elegant, simple, and solemn.

However, after 2010, he noticed that people’s needs had changed. More and more people began to tell him that they did not want their relatives’ funerals to be carried out in such a solemn way. “Having a barbecue on the beach where the relatives loved the most, raising a glass to commemorate them in their favorite bar, or having a family gathering in a scenic place is far more attractive than renting a fleet of luxury cars at a high price, wearing black clothes collectively, and watching a stranger host a 30 – minute ceremony.”

So in 2015, Bryan Powell finally made up his mind to open a funeral service company that better met “consumer needs,” featuring a “full – process self – service cremation service.” It supports door – to – door pick – up and delivery after cremation, with a one – time all – inclusive fee and no additional charges. To better realize this idea, he also invested $8.5 million to build a crematorium in Hampshire, UK, to ensure that the cost was within his control.

Subsequent facts proved that Bryan’s judgment was correct. Pure Cremation has been very popular since its establishment. In 2017, they completed 1,000 cremations, and this number doubled to 2,000 in 2018. In addition, they also offer pre – sales of cremation services, allowing people to make arrangements for their own funerals in advance, just like an insurance company. According to a report from Sky News in the UK, more than 65,000 copies of this pre – sale service were sold in 2021.

Such performance naturally attracted the attention of the capital market. In 2018, they received an investment of $10 million from Puma Investments, a UK private equity investment institution (not the one that sells shoes). In July 2023, the UK PE fund Epiris acquired Pure Cremation. According to Sky News, the transaction price at that time was $533 million (approximately 3.785 billion yuan).”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

My history with Pure Cremation — Back in 2017 when I started Funeral Director Daily Pure Cremation founder Bryan Powell was one of my first subscribers. . . and, at the time, one of the very few from Great Britain. We corresponded from time-to-time via email about the profession in general and Bryan even invited me to speak at a European cremation operators gathering. I watched Pure Cremation’s business ascension and came to believe that the there was three fundamental reasons Pure Cremation grew in such an explosive fashion:

The high-density paid media promotion of “low-cost” and “No-fuss”. (as for “No-fuss” Pure Cremation promised picking up the body and delivering the cremated remains with “no-fuss” on your part. i.e. they made it very easy for consumers to call them)
The idea of guaranteed cost pre-arrangements. . . .That brought “No-fuss” one step farther. . . Families did not have to worry about paying an extra cost for anything.
Building their own cremation chapels which was uncommon for Great Britain. This allowed Pure Cremation to control costs and scheduling in contrast to using a third-party, civic-owned facility.

I miss my email conversations that Bryan Powell and I had back in that day. As a matter of fact when the Powells were in the process of selling Pure Cremation he trusted me to suggest an American firm to discuss the possibility of a potential new owner coming from North America. I was able to put him in touch with an American firm that did offer some of that consulting.

Bryan and Catherine Powell’s buidling of a direct cremation business from scratch to an entity worth close to a billion dollars in about a decades time might be the greatest financial feat in the history of Death Care start-ups and I’ve been glad to have my seat on the sideline watching it all.

Related Article — PE firm to sell minority interest in funeral services provider after three years of growth. Insider Media (Great Britain)

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