Hillenbrand Industries, the parent company of Batesville Casket Company, posted 3rd Quarter earnings yesterday and did so by showing an increase in revenues to almost $396 million for the quarter.  That represents a 7% increase over the same quarter in 2016 and puts their fiscal year 9-month revenues about $38  million (3.4%) over the same period last year.

Hillenbrand, a global diversified industrial company that serves a wide-variety of industries across the globe, reported that they have a very positive demand for the industrial markets they serve, including their products in hydraulic fracking.  The company reported net income for the quarter of almost $33 million as compared to about $31 million in 2016 and for the nine months reported net income of $88 million as compared to $76.8 million over the same period last year — that’s a 14.5% increase.

As for their Batesville Casket division, they reported quarterly sales of $137 million which is 2% lower than last year.  They attribute this to the increasing rate at which families are choosing cremation.

You can see their Press Release here.

Funeral Director Daily take:  A good report by Hillenbrand although a somewhat sobering report on what is happening in the United States casket market.  As you remember, Matthews International, parent company of Aurora Casket – the other big player in the U.S. casket market – also reported a decrease in sales for their casket division this quarter.  These are trends that are not going away and as we move forward we are going to see these companies chase fewer and fewer customers.

It’s interesting for me to note that only about 1/3 of Hillenbrand’s sales ($137m out of $396m) for the quarter come from Batesville Casket.  I’m guessing that when I started in the business – as a Batesville customer — this percentage was much greater.  Our take is that it will continue to fall – absent of a large acquisition – with the continuing trends we see in cremation.

In my opinion, however, Hillenbrand is a solid company that knows what it has to do.  From the financials I gleaned that their gross profit margin for the year is up 3% and their operating expenses have actually shrunk by almost 1% ($2m)– not such an easy thing to do when companies get large.  To me that indicates good management and a willingness to prosper the company rather than hold on to sacred cows forever.  That’s a good lesson for funeral home owners.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]