We will finish out the week letting you know some of the things that happened over the week without much editorial comment.  Have a great weekend and for those of our readers in the United States. . .Happy Labor Day on Monday!!

Special Hearse for Aretha Franklin.  Click here to see a photo of the transportation of deceased singer Aretha Franklin’s body to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.  A special hearse built in 1940 provided the livery.  It was the same 1940 Cadillac LaSalle that transported her father, Civil Rights leader C.L. Franklin, upon his death in 1984.  The hearse was also used for Temptations singer David Ruffin in 1991 and Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks in 2005.  You can also see a photo of Franklin’s casket – a 24-karat gold plated unit.

Carriage Services makes another Acquisition –  It was announced this week that Houston based public funeral home company Carriage Services had purchased the L. Harold Poole Funeral Service and Crematory in Raleigh, North Carolina market area.  We recently announced their purchase of the Presley Funeral Home in Tennessee.  In our opinion, the Poole purchase criteria fits right in where we see Carriage honing in their efforts.  According to the article it is a 275 call firm and we believe fits in that smaller, cluster building, low cremation profile that it seems Carriage Services is targeting.  You can learn more about this acquisition here.

Propel Funeral Partners gaining traction.  Upstart public company Propel Funeral Partners in Australia reported an 11% stock price increase as a result of its year end results reported this week.    Propel, which reminds us a lot of North America’s Park Lawn Corporation, is gaining a foothold and trying to compete with market share leader, InvoCare, down under.  Propel reported, annual results as of June 30, which included revenue increasing 76% year over year to $80.9 million from $46.1 million (All numbers in Australian dollars).  They also reported average revenue per funeral increasing 5.5% to an average retail funeral price of $5508 and finally, reported that their number of cases rose by 67% to 10,111.  In our opinion at FDD the most impressive number in this is that they have been able to move the average funeral price up 5.5%.  In the day of more and more direct cremations, that is not an easy thing to do.  You can read a more lengthy report here.

In Memory of United States Senator John McCain 1936-2018

[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]