Funeral home consolidator and operator Carriage Services reported their financial results for the 1st Quarter of 2024 last week.  In the Earnings Call following the release of the financials Carriage Services CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board Carlos Quezada commented that the $100 million in quarterly revenue for the company represents “A significant milestone for Carriage’s history”.  

 

It was the first time since going public in 1996 that the company had reached a level of $100 million in revenue for a quarter.  According to the press release on the financial results that you can see here, Carriage Services recorded revenues for 1Q24 of $103.5 million which is about 8.4% higher than the revenues ($95.5 million) for the same period of 2023.

 

Quezada also mentioned in the press release that this revenue increase was partially led by a 38.4% year over year increase in preneed cemetery sales.

 

Much like Service Corporation International (SCI) who also reported financial results last week, Carriage Services saw their case volume decline year over year — in their case by about 1.9%.  However, because of a “Revenue per Case” increase of about 4.1% on funeral contracts their overall funeral operating revenue grew at a slight pace even with that lower volume.  Funeral revenue grew to $66.5 million as compared to last year’s (2023) 1st Quarter funeral revenue of $65.4 million.

 

As for cemetery operating revenue, the 1Q24 figure was $27.5 million as compared to the 1Q23 number of $21.3 million. . . an increase of almost 30%.

 

Again, much like their peer SCI, Net Income was also down – from $8.8 million in last year’s 1st Quarter to $6.9 million in the 1st Quarter of 2024.

 

It appears the biggest stumbling block to building higher Net Income for Carriage Services in 1Q24 was an additional $6 million in General and Administrative overhead expenses.  However, we believe that most of that increase is a one-time expense related to the separation agreement of former CEO and Board Chair Melvin Payne.  Without that expense, if indeed one-time, Carriage Services would have grown Net Income to about $13 million or an almost 47% increase over their results for the 1st Quarter of 2023.

 

Finally, Carriage Services announced that it was using some of its cash-flow to pay down debt. . . during the 1st Quarter of 2024  the company announced that they had paid down $25.0 million on their credit facility.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  Moving on a plan to increase revenue, increase gross profits, and reduce debt in an inflationary environment is not very easy to accomplish.  However, Carriage Services did that in the 1st Quarter of 2024.  That’s not easy . . . and it may get more difficult to keep making progress on that plan but executing the plan one quarter, one month, and even one day at the time is the way to move forward.

 

It appears that the people at Carriage Services have a solid plan, the big question is “Will they be able to accomplish the mission in the face of a changing funeral consumer?”  It’s going to be an interesting story to watch.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• The return of horse-drawn cassions to Arlington National is delayed for at least months.  Spectrum News 1 (NY)
• Britain’s first-ever water cremation business coming to Wrabness.  Harwich and Manning Tree Standard (Great Britain)
• Terry Reardon – Valley Funeral Director dead at 60.  WFMJ- Channel 21 – Youngstown (OH)
• New York Department of State announces first “Caring for your Cemetery” day.  State of New York (NY)
• Regulations make natural burial unaffordable in Ontario:  advocates.  Orillia Matters.com

 

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