Funeral Director Daily

Park Lawn Corporation reports 3Q 2019

By Funeral Director Daily / November 18, 2019 /

Last week Canadian based public company funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation released its 3rd Quarter and 9-month results for 2019.  You can see them here. The fast growing company reported 2019 3Q revenues of $66.5 million as compared to 2018 3rd Quarter revenues of $43.2 million. . .an increase of 54%.  They…

Preneed: Do you know your competitors?

By Funeral Director Daily / November 18, 2019 /

I’ve been involved in the funeral business long enough to see the State of Minnesota move, in what I consider a more consumer friendly way, in respect to the business of preneed.  I can go back to the 1980’s when we were only allowed to put a consumer’s designated funeral funds into a bank guaranteed…

Batesville reports that 4th Qtr sales are flat

By Funeral Director Daily / November 15, 2019 /

Hillenbrand Industries, parent company of Batesville Casket company reported earlier this week that Batesville’s fiscal 4th Quarter sales (July, August, September) were essentially flat from the prior year.  You can see Hillenbrand’s 4th Quarter and Year End report here. Hillenbrand Industries reported quarterly revenue of $486 million — an increase over 4Q 2018 of 2%. …

Acquisitions keep on rolling around the world

By Funeral Director Daily / November 15, 2019 /

There are a lot of reasons that businesses, including funeral homes, change operational and ownership hands.  Sometimes a single proprietor gets a price that he just can’t turn down.  Sometimes a single proprietor just wants to retire and either has no family to go into the business or family that wants to pursue other goals…

Whose casket is it?

By Funeral Director Daily / November 14, 2019 /

The other day we came across this unusual article in the Voldosta Today News.  The story revolves around the private mausoleum of the E.D. Rivers, Jr. family. E.D. (Eurith Dickinson) Rivers, Jr. was the 68th Governor of Georgia and served from 1937 to 1941.  According to the above referenced article, he and his wife Mattie…

StoneMor Partners reports 3rd Quarter

By Funeral Director Daily / November 13, 2019 /

StoneMor Partners L.P. reported their 3rd Quarter and 9-month 2019 numbers last week and with it showed significant progress in their attempt at a transformational turnaround of the company.  In brief, StoneMor reported that revenues are stabilizing, that they are cutting recurring expenses, and that they have made progress on a divestiture process that will,…

The Greening of cremation

By Funeral Director Daily / November 13, 2019 /

National Geographic magazine published an article the other day that you can read here.  It was published in their “Environment and Conservation” sector and is entitled, “The environmental toll of cremating the dead“. The article makes the statement that 78% of Brits are now cremated and in America, we have surpassed the number of burials…

From the Veterans Day file

By Funeral Director Daily / November 12, 2019 /

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day across the United States and we noticed a couple of funeral related items that we thought we would pass on to our readers. First of all, we noticed how Service Corporation International’ s Dignity Memorial location in Western Michigan received some really good attention on a television talk show about pre-planning…

Annual budgeting. . .bringing in the revenue

By Funeral Director Daily / November 12, 2019 /

Yesterday we started the talk of annual budgeting for a funeral home by looking at what are the expectations for overhead, profit, and a savings plan in that budget.  You can see yesterday’s article here.  Today, we will try to explain how we set the revenue parameters to make sure that we have a great…

It’s Veterans Day. . .Thank you for your service!!

By Funeral Director Daily / November 11, 2019 /

Honoring and remembering is something funeral homes help families do.  Virtually all funeral homes also have a special relationship with the military veterans in their community because of the service that these men and women provide at the funeral, memorial, or graveside service of one of their comrades. We just want to make sure that…