On Friday we published an article about funeral FinTech and software firm Tribute Technology fetching a reported “more than a billion” dollar amount when sold. That same day we learned in this article that an Idaho funeral tech firm had just received a $4 million venture fund investment from Pelion Venture Partners based in Utah. Gather, a Meridian, Idaho, based company, according to the article, “provides software solutions to funeral homes to help families after the death of a loved […]
We are in the period of public companies reporting their 3rd Quarter results to the world and it is only a couple of weeks before Hillenbrand, parent company of Batesville Casket Company, and Matthews International, parent company of Aurora Casket Company will give us those results. As most of you know, those businesses have generally continued to remain profitable even in the face of downward unit sales over the past several years as cremation has cut into the number of […]
If you want to stay ahead of the curve in whatever you are doing I would suggest to play the “What if” game every once in a while just to see where you are standing. The “What if” game can be played in all lines of business and is, in my opinion, a great exercise to determine the future sustainability of your business in its present form. I recently saw an article on a funeral home where they were telling […]
A little over a year ago Funeral Director Daily brought you this article introducing Better Place Forests to our readers. At that time we said of the idea, “Think of it. . . increased cremation and now a place – like cemeteries of old – where today’s consumer will feel comfortable placing the remains of loved ones in an environmentally friendly way and place. An interesting venture. . . and one whose time may have come.” At that time the […]
It is not everyday that a new category for the consumer to choose from comes along. A new category has to be so unique that while it may have other ideas to compete with it, it is somewhat all by itself in the product or service it offers to the consumer. What is interesting is that after so many years of watching the death care space provide basic options in the earth burial and cremation consumer categories with very little […]
This article from the Daily Chronicle tells how Recompose founder Katrina Spade has been working since 2014 to bring Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) to an acceptable and legal process of human disposition. She not only had to prove the science behind what many call “human composting” but had to find a legislative body to approve the method in a state. Since that time a Washington State University scientist has used the remains of six terminally ill patients to prove the […]
As we head into what we hope is a terrific Fall weekend Funeral Director Daily brings you three features as well as other articles on the world of death care. Our features include an article, that you can read here, about the Netherlands and the first person put in a “Mushroom Coffin” last week that is designed to turn the body into compost. The “Living Cocoon, as inventor Bob Henrikx calls it, is designed as the first living coffin and, […]
There were a couple of items in the news recently that brought about this headline. The first was the death and funeral services for young actor Chadwick Boseman and the second item that I caught was the notice that CBS is developing a one-hour drama series that will be called “Closure”. “Closure” is loosely based on Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member, Andre Dawson, and his later life-story in that he purchased a funeral home following his baseball playing […]
I came across this recent article from Seed Investor entitled “Solace co-founder David Odusanya on the impact of COVID-19”. The article intrigued me, not because of the COVID-19 fact, but because I knew that Solace was the company founded in Portland, Oregon, by two Nike executives to enter the low-cost direct cremation market. According to the company web-site, Solace provides direct cremation with “Concierge Level Support” thru Solace Care Teams for $895. The death care space has historically been won […]
For almost 35 years I operated a funeral home and most of what I did there I thoroughly enjoyed. . . especially the part that was directly working with the families that were in need of funeral service help at the time. I felt privileged that they would let me into the family discussions about how they would celebrate and memorialize their relative. To me that was an honor. One of the things that I did not enjoy was […]
