Funeral Director Daily

StoneMor agrees to Axar Capital Management buyout

By Funeral Director Daily / May 26, 2022 /

In a press release issued at the beginning of business yesterday, Wednesday May 25, StoneMor Inc. announced that the company had agreed to a “definitive merger agreement under which a subsidiary of Axar Capital Management, LP (“Axar”) will be merged with and into StoneMor and all outstanding shares of StoneMor common stock not owned by…

Here’s a benefit that you didn’t see coming

By Funeral Director Daily / May 25, 2022 /

I operated a funeral home business for over 33 years.  When I started in 1980 the only benefits offered were health insurance and paid vacation.  Over the next 33 years we changed with the times and I came to approve benefits that included not only health care and paid vacation, but also a 401k -like…

British government urged to set up fund for failed preneed providers

By Funeral Director Daily / May 24, 2022 /

In the shadows of the failure of preneed funding vehicle Safe Hands Plans, the British government is being urged to set up a fund for those that have lost funds through the collapse of Safe Hands Plans.  As you may know, the British preneed industry is to come under the purveyance of the country’s Financial…

StoneMor reports 1st Quarter. . . Axar talks continue

By Funeral Director Daily / May 24, 2022 /

Here’s what StoneMor Inc. CEO Joe Redling had to say about the company’s 1st Quarter of 2022 during the company’s earnings call on May 12 which you can access here, “During the first quarter, we achieve(d) 4% year-over-year growth in our pre-need sales production.  And this is against the first quarter of 2021. That was…

Is a Pet Crematory in your future?

By Funeral Director Daily / May 23, 2022 /

Every week as I’m looking researching through death care articles looking for topics to write on for Funeral Director Daily I will come across an article from some United States newspaper announcing that the local funeral home has just added pet cremation services to its line of service offerings. I’ve also seen, as this article…

Recognizing the “cusp of change”

By Funeral Director Daily / May 20, 2022 /

I’m always on the look out for whatever I can find that puts me at the front edge of “change” in the death care profession.  Change in our profession used to happen pretty slow. . . . from home visitations to funeral homes, from wood caskets to metal caskets, to the slow methodical march of…

Dignity plc results are “mixed”

By Funeral Director Daily / May 19, 2022 /

Dignity plc, Great Britain’s largest funeral home and crematory operator announced last week in this report that you can see from Morningstar, that their 1st Quarter 2022 revenues and operating profits fell considerably over the same period of 2021.  However, it also appears that Dignity plc was able to increase their market share for services…

Park Lawn Corp sees increased revenue and earnings despite call volume dip

By Funeral Director Daily / May 19, 2022 /

Last week Park Lawn Corporation (PLC) announced their 1st Quarter of 2022 earnings results.  For the period ended on March 31, 2022, the company increased their revenue 17.5% to $83.1 million as compared to the 1Q of 2021 when they reported $70.5 million in revenue.  The company also reported Net Earnings of $8.7 million in…

Funeral Director Daily’s Most Read Articles in the past 30 days.

By Funeral Director Daily / May 18, 2022 /

My how time flies by.  It seems like I just posted last month’s most read stories.  Anyway, in case you missed some of our top articles here’s what our readers found most interesting over the time period from April 15 to May 15. Another new concept. . Can it catch on. Wilbert, Park Lawn make…

Are we “Turning the Corner?”

By Funeral Director Daily / May 18, 2022 /

In the last few weeks I have heard and seen a lot about about staffing issues in the death care world.  For instance, I recently had a discussion with Ryan Thogmartin of Connecting Directors and he told me that their surveys from owners and managers indicate that staffing, employee issues, and just simply getting enough…