Business

When to hold ’em, when to fold ’em and the acquisition movement

By Funeral Director Daily / July 10, 2019 /

Last week I read this article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune focused on the Fortune 500 company, General Mills.  General Mills is a Minneapolis based company – and has been for a long time – which leads to much media coverage for them in the state of Minnesota.  The article pertained to the fact that…

100 years of creating monuments, the Supreme Court, and more on Sunset Mesa

By Funeral Director Daily / July 9, 2019 /

From time to time we like to feature businesses who for some reason or other have an interesting story to tell.  Today, we bring you the story of the Shafer Monument Company of Mitchell, South Dakota. As we move into the 2nd half of 2019 the Shafer family is celebrating their 100th year of business. …

As Maine goes. . .so goes the nation

By Funeral Director Daily / July 2, 2019 /

When I was growing up and in elementary school in the 1960’s there was a saying about Presidential elections.  That saying was, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation”.  What it meant was that the state of Maine had an uncanny ability to vote with the winning candidate in so many elections.  In today’s left…

Today’s SpaceX launch to carry 152 cremated human remains

By Funeral Director Daily / June 24, 2019 /

In recent months at Funeral Director Daily  we have kept up with what we think are some of the newer ways to memorialize that consumers are thinking about such as alkaline hydrolysis, recombination (human composting), potential outdoor cremation and the like.  Until we saw this article we had forgot all about Celestis Memorial Spaceflights –…

The growth of the trade business

By Funeral Director Daily / June 21, 2019 /

This week the Minneapolis Star Tribune did a really good piece on the role of the “Specialty” funeral director in our society.  What they referred to as the “Specialty” funeral director those of us in the industry have referred to as the “trade” service.  You can read the article here. The basics of the article…

Friday around the profession

By Funeral Director Daily / June 14, 2019 /

It’s Friday and we just thought that we would bring you some stories and/or news videos from around the profession to end the week.  Here is what we have for you today: Pet Loss:  This short news video story from a Texas television station tells the story of a pet crematory that has allegedly had…

Another way to help

By Funeral Director Daily / June 13, 2019 /

Yesterday we told you of an effort to find unclaimed cremation remains permanent memorial places through a non-profit group.  Today we just want to tell funeral home operators of another way that they can help with the final memorialization of our veterans. I never thought of this issue before, but it is out there and…

Australia. . . the harbinger of things to come?

By Funeral Director Daily / June 11, 2019 /

The funeral and cremation profession in Australia is an industry that takes in about US $ 1.12 billion in revenue each year (all amounts in this article have been converted to U.S. values).  That’s only about 7% of the purported industry revenue of $16.3 billion that the United States death care profession reels in, however,…

“Charging like raging bulls”

By Funeral Director Daily / June 10, 2019 /

Australian funeral customer Jane Sinclair has created a little bit of a stir down under by calling for more transparency in the way that client families are charged for funeral services.  Ms. Sinclair, according to this article from ABC Australia, complained months after the services were performed for her mother.  She is quoted as saying…

Presidential visit pays off for livery company

By Funeral Director Daily / June 6, 2019 /

This article from a European publication indicates that the recent visit to Ireland by President Donald Trump and his contingent paid off handsomely for an Irish based livery company. It is estimated that the Irish livery company JP Ward & Sons will receive close to $1 million during the Presidential trip that includes the D-Day…