Welch & Cornett Funeral Home
Worthington, Indiana

An article that appeared in the Green County Daily World of Linton, Indiana, caught my attention the other day.  It was entitled “Walton’s install crematory at Welch & Cornet Funeral Home in Worthington”.

I read the article and then did a little research.  The article states that the crematory will be the first in Greene County, Indiana, and serve the three locations/communities that 43- year old funeral director Todd Walton owns and operates in the rural Indiana area.

Walton states that casketed and burial with a vault still is the primary choice of families in his rural area, but that cremation is growing steadily.  He also states that his firm is always looking for better ways to serve the families that call on him

Finally, he concludes that they had existing room to add a crematory in one of the three buildings and he believes that the firm was to the point that there was enough cremations to support the purchase and installation of the crematory.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Here’s where my research kicks in.  I noticed the three communities that Walton serves have a total population in the city limits of under 10,000 total.  If it is like my community, there are probably an equal number of people who do business in that community but live outside the city limits — so let’s say that he serves a population of about 20,000.

Any funeral director who is honest with himself will admit that cremation is growing.  If you do not admit that – and that revenue per case will decrease over time — your head is in the sand.

However, as long as your market area is not shrinking, this should not scare you.  When you add your own crematory – which I’m guessing you can do for about $100k in an existing building – you have the ability to keep your traditional customers and not let them leave your care for a discount cremation operator.  One thing that is often overlooked, but Walton states it in this article, is that local families like local control and the fact that everything is done locally.

So, do some math and see if a crematory is for your business.  Cremations in your facility should be able to raise margins and if you can get enough of an increase in margin, then you should not fear the loss of the traditional casketed business to cremation.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]