It was announced in a recent press release that you can access here that funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation (PLC) has made another acquisition in the greater Kansas City market. Just this week they have announced that they have acquired substantially all of the assets of the aptly named Park Lawn Funeral…
Slightly over two years ago Funeral Director Daily reported that it had read in Bloomberg Law that a lawsuit had been filed by plaintiff Park Lawn Corporation against the defendant PlotBox. The wheels of justice seem to grind slowly and we had not even thought about that case until earlier this week when we received…
There was a time when if you needed information on a task or a service you went direct to the source to find the information needed. Remember, when your watch didn’t work you would take it to the local jeweler to diagnose the issue. . . . Or if the electronic device you just purchased…
If you read all of the articles that I do while I’m doing my research you would notice that a great many articles get written on what I’ll call the staffing crisis in funeral homes around the country. And, while not really contradictory, they seem to be on one of three subjects. Those subjects are…
Matthews International, parent company of Matthews Cremation and Aurora Casket, announced their Fiscal Year 4th Quarter and Year End 2022 results last week. President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said this in the opening statements of the report, “I am pleased with our operating results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30,…
BUSINESS
Casket companies make some news. . . .and what is the future demand
In a new world order that includes cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, and natural organic reduction it is sometimes forgotten that over 1 million caskets are sold in the United States every year. To that discussion…
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
Small volume firms need to know their potential value
Within the last month Death Care marketing expert Glenn Gould contributed to a Funeral Director Daily article with this comment, “There are too many funeral homes. NFDA estimated 15,500 firms in 2023; 30%…
FINANCE
Small volume firms need to know their potential value
Within the last month Death Care marketing expert Glenn Gould contributed to a Funeral Director Daily article with this comment, “There are too many funeral homes. NFDA estimated 15,500 firms in 2023; 30%…
There must be profits in Direct Cremation
With the NFDA convention going on in Chicago I thought that I would give attendees something to talk about while exploring the Expo floor. It was only a couple of weeks ago that…
Seeking Alpha author on SCI stock: “You might want to hold this one until your last breath”
Seeking Alpha contributiing author Daniel Jones published an article this week titled, “Service Corporation International: You might want to hold this one until your last breath”. It is a very interesting article that…
REGULATIONS
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
Dead people don’t pay taxes
In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio,…
Veteran Cemeteries will continue with burials. . . but what is open and closed on a government shutdown
Tomorrow is the last day of the federal government’s fiscal year. That is not necessarily a big deal except that the new federal budget year begins on Wednesday and as I write this on…
CEMETERY
Green cemetery case ending up in Federal Court
According to Gemini AI, “(the number of) articles can indicate short-term reactions, they can also foretell longer-term trends by reflecting shifts in public and business attention and sentiment”. And, if you read the number…
Dead people don’t pay taxes
In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio,…
Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer
As things seem to do in my life, circumstances came together this week to have me reflect on changes in the Death Care profession/industry. First of all, here’s three items that came together…
CREMATION
There must be profits in Direct Cremation
With the NFDA convention going on in Chicago I thought that I would give attendees something to talk about while exploring the Expo floor. It was only a couple of weeks ago that…
Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift, from “Services selection” to “Memorialization selection”, by the consumer
As things seem to do in my life, circumstances came together this week to have me reflect on changes in the Death Care profession/industry. First of all, here’s three items that came together…
Pure Cremation’s private equity owner putting the business up for sale
I learned through an article from Sky News and in this article from KillBait that Epiris, the private equity firm that acquired London area-based Direct Cremation provider Pure Cremation just over two years ago,…
PRENEED
Preneed companies emerge as funeral home lending sources
Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm that provides a wide range of products and services, including investment banking, wealth management, consumer banking, and brokerage services, recently made this comment in an article, “Life…
Co-op Funeralcare increases “Funeral Plan” sales over 17% despite cyberattack
An April cyberattack which you can read about here probably cost the parent company of Great Britain’s largest funeral home operator, Co-op Funeralcare, about a US$ 107 million profit swing but didn’t seem to…
Acquiring client families — “Any Which Way You Can”
As so often happens in my world I’ve had some real life and/or businesses experiences or discussions in the last week or ten days that has made me think about Death Care. And,…
PRODUCTS
Casket companies make some news. . . .and what is the future demand
In a new world order that includes cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, and natural organic reduction it is sometimes forgotten that over 1 million caskets are sold in the United States every year. To that discussion…
Here’s a new product everyone in the cremation business could use
I operated a crematory at our funeral home and one of the tasks I very much disliked was transfering cremation remains into the very popular “vase-shaped” urns. You see, while the vase-shaped urn has…
PlotBox acquires MIS
In this press release issued last week you can read that PlotBox has acquired MIS (sometimes referred to as HMIS). The PlotBox website brings about this statement about the integration of the companies,…
