StoneMor Partners, the Pennsylvania operator of funeral homes and cemeteries announced First Quarter 2019 results last week. The company, which is in what CEO Joe Redling says is an “operational reorganization” continues to see revenues lower and losses larger than the comparable quarter one year ago. For 1Q 2019 revenues amounted to $71.5 million as…
Toronto based funeral and cemetery services provider Park Lawn Corporation announced last week that they have entered into agreements to acquire the assets of Horan & McConaty Funeral Services and the assets of the Baue Funeral Home Company. The press release and more information that you can read from Yahoo Finance here, indicate that the…
We have written that funeral wishes and choices by the consumer is ever expanding in the death care market. We have written that the choices and alternatives outside of traditional earth burial and cremation continue to expand. Last October we wrote about a process, created by a company called Coeio, in which a deceased is…
Part of our duty here at Funeral Director Daily is to pass information and ideas that we have learned about on to working funeral directors. By doing so, we hope to give those funeral directors additional tools to help ease the lives of those they serve. Over the years we have told you where you…
I mentioned earlier this week that I spent last week in Las Vegas with about 150 people in our profession. Lots of items get bantered about at this event and one that was visited about quite frequently last week was the opening of Tulip Cremations. While I have only anecdotal knowledge of Tulip Cremation, I…
BUSINESS
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%…
. . Dream things that never were and say “Why not”
When Ted Kennedy eulogized his brother Bobby (RFK) at his funeral following his assasination in 1968 he made this comment about what RFK had at one time said about his ability to look…
Most people just don’t understand . . . .
It’s Monday, October 27, and much of the Death Care universe is centered in Chicago, Illinois, attending the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) International Convention & Expo. I had my schedule of the convention…
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
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…
Indiana Court: “Death Doula” does not need a funeral director license
According to this issue of the Indianapolis Star an Indiana court of appeals ruled in late August that the State of Indiana “violated the First Amendment rights of a Fort Wayne “death…
CEMETERY
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…
Hollywood Forever’s “High-Rise” mausoleum and “Premium” products may be the future of cemeteries
This information (with photos) from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery announces the opening of their recently completed Gower Mausoleum. Here’s a paragraph from the cemetery’s recent announcement: “Hollywood Forever is honored to announce the…
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
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,…
News for the Profession
News from Suppliers and Practitioners that you can use. . . . From a Press Release from Foveo : Foveo Memorial Services Inc. (“Foveo) and Tukios, one of the profession’s leading…
