Finance

Propel Funeral Partners shows growth with 2022 Annual Report

By Funeral Director Daily / September 20, 2022 /

Propel Funeral Partners, the public company that owns and operates funeral homes, cremation facilities, cemeteries, and related infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand, announced their Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) results in late August, and did so by showing growth all across their reporting numbers. The company that began in 2012 with 278 funeral services reported…

SCI settles “Deceptive sales” lawsuit for $209 million

By Funeral Director Daily / September 20, 2022 /

Service Corporation International (SCI) has agreed to provide up to $209 million in refunds to settle a federal class-action lawsuit alleging it deceived 87,000 Florida customers who purchased its prepaid plans according to this article from last week from Yahoo News. According to the article SCI Direct (formerly called Neptune Society Management Corporation) was named…

Are funeral home’s values getting hit with a “Double Whammy”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 16, 2022 /

A sale, or commerce if you will, occurs when a willing buyer and a willing seller reach agreement on a price for a good or service and then that price is paid from the buyer to the seller to mark the transaction.  While we don’t always think of it in that term, transactions like this…

Anthem Partners makes 19 location acquisition

By Funeral Director Daily / September 13, 2022 /

We learned last week via this press release that Anthem Partners, the Frisco, Texas, based owner and operator of funeral homes and cemeteries had acquired Serenity & Company Memorial Service.  According to the press release, Serenity & Company began in 2007 in Arkansas, but has expanded and now operates in Arkansas, California, Nevada, and New…

Messenger acquires Thumbies; thoughts on the “new memorialization”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 13, 2022 /

In this news release from Messenger News you can read about the Messenger Company and its acquisition of the Thumbies Fingerprint Keepsakes business.  The release states that “the new addition to the Messenger family of companies will allow the Messenger team of sales representatives to offer the complete line of Thumbies jewelry in their portfolio…

StoneMor announces acquisition of Illinois funeral home

By Funeral Director Daily / September 9, 2022 /

StoneMor Inc., the Pennsylvania based operator of funeral homes and cemeteries announced the acquisition of Anderson Funeral and Cremation Services of Belvidere, Illinois, last week.  According to this press release from StoneMor, company CEO Joe Redling said of the acquisition, “StoneMor’s acquisition of Anderson Funeral and Cremation Services is a valuable strategic move for us…

Seeking Alpha author makes case for Matthews International

By Funeral Director Daily / September 2, 2022 /

Seeking Alpha author Austin Rogers makes a case for the upside future of conglomerate Matthews International. . .a company which receives about 46% of its revenue from the death care space.  The article is really detailed about a little history of Matthews and where the company seems to be going in the future. Here’s a…

Death Care Index falls, trails market indexes on the year

By Funeral Director Daily / August 29, 2022 /

I had planned this article subject for this date simply because we have now finished the 2nd Quarter reports for all seven death care related companies that comprise the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI). I hesitated, but then continued to move forward with this report on the public death care companies in spite…

Acquisitions: Two continents, two hemispheres, corporate firms, 4th generation firms. . . they keep happening

By Funeral Director Daily / August 26, 2022 /

Going into the weekend we thought we needed to remind you that acquisitions keep on coming in the death care business.  In the last week or ten days here’s a couple we noticed. Cleveland’s Busch Funeral and Crematory Services, a 4th generation firm has added Schuster-Straker-O’Connor Funeral Home  of Parma, Ohio, to its existing Northeast…

Forbes writer advocates for Batesville spin-off from Hillenbrand

By Funeral Director Daily / August 25, 2022 /

Earlier this summer we brought you this article which brought information that parent company Hillenbrand Industries was contemplating “strategic alternatives” for its Batesville division.  Last week Forbes contributing writer Jim Osman expressed in this article his opinion that the Batesville division should be “spun-off” from Hillenbrand in order to unlock “shareholder value”. Osman contends that…