Finance

Washington state funeral home purchases competitor

By Funeral Director Daily / November 7, 2024 /

  This article from the Tri-City Herald of Washington state lets us know that what will now be the largest funeral home operator in the Tri-Cities, Einan Funeral Homes, has grown by adding Hillcrest Funerals and Cremation to their group of funeral homes and cemeteries.   Those funeral homes are located in Kennewick and Pasco,…

Park Lawn continues Texas growth

By Funeral Director Daily / November 6, 2024 /

  On Monday of this week Park Lawn Corporation announced that they had continued their Texas acquisition growth with the purchase of the Callaway-Jones businesses located in and around Bryan, Texas.   According to the press release which you can read here, Park Lawn Corporation acquired  “substantially all the assets of Callaway-Jones Funeral Home and…

Carriage Services 3Q revenue grows over 11% when compared to last year

By Funeral Director Daily / November 4, 2024 /

    Here’s what Carriage Services Vice-Chairman and CEO Carlos Quezada said in prepared statements accompanying Carriages Services 3rd Quarter 2024 financial reports, “I am pleased to announce that our growth continues with another strong quarter of performance. Our cemetery sales team achieved a notable increase of 27.1% year-over-year in preneed sales, affirming the continued…

SCI 3rd Quarter 2024 – My opinion: Pretty much status quo

By Funeral Director Daily / November 1, 2024 /

    You can access the report on Service Corporation International’s (SCI) 3rd Quarter of 2024 here.  When you do, I’m of the opinion that you will see it looks pretty much like the 3rd Quarter of 2023.   Here’s a couple of Top-Line highlights as presented early in the report by SCI: Revenue grew $12.1…

CEO Charlie Cole, two other executives leave Tribute Technologies

By Funeral Director Daily / October 29, 2024 /

  At Funeral Director Daily we don’t “break news” — we report on it and offer experienced analysis, ideas, and suggestions on the news that has happened.  That being said, the headline for this article on the resignations of three Tribute Technology employees does not come as a surprise to me.   This news was…

Seeking Alpha author anticipating Carriage Services 3Q Report this week

By Funeral Director Daily / October 28, 2024 /

  It’s an interesting week in the Death Care profession.  Not only do we have Halloween coming up on Thursday, but the day before that, Wednesday, October 30, both of the two largest public funeral home and cemetery operating companies in America are expected to report their 3rd Quarter 2024 earnings.   Depending on how…

Matthews International stock: Is the drop behind us?

By Funeral Director Daily / October 16, 2024 /

  In the last calendar year – dating back to October 16, 2023 – Matthews International stock, the parent company of Aurora Casket and Matthews Environmental Solutions (cremation), has dropped over 44% in a world, by contrast, where the Dow Jones Industrials have risen over 25% for the same dates.   A recent (October 6,…

SCI shuffles the Corner Offices

By Funeral Director Daily / October 9, 2024 /

    Last week I read this press release from Service Corporation International (SCI) that was headlined “Service Corporation International announces Leadership Promotions”.  As I read through the announcement it reflected the fact that SCI was making some changes in its leadership structure.   While I don’t know the exact circumstances, in reading the press…

Better Place Forests becomes both “High Touch” and “High Tech”

By Funeral Director Daily / October 8, 2024 /

    Better Place Forests (BPF) has been known for being a place where families can have meaningful “in-person” experiences with memorialization in the company forests.  Last week we learned of BPF’s acquisition of digital platform Butterfly which will now give the company the addition of “High Tech” digital memorials that can be accessed online…

Illinois funeral home owner says selling to friends “. . makes it easier to walk away from this business I’ve known all my life”

By Funeral Director Daily / October 4, 2024 /

    We learned of an interesting sale/acquisition story that happened recently in Illinois.  This article from the Mendota Reporter will tell you of the sale of the Merritt Funeral Home to the Unger-Horner Funeral Home.   It’s interesting to note, according to the article, that the Merritt Funeral Home has been in the Merritt…