As many times happens with me, I learn something from a news item or items and then try to convert that knowledge to the funeral industry and try to figure out if or how what I’ve learned will translate to our profession. So was the case this week when I saw some public relations for a company called Lantern, whose website you can see here, that has a slogan saying, “End of Life Planning”. I also saw an advertisement for […]
Matthews International reported their Fiscal year 2021 2nd Quarter results last week and with the report we noticed how it is impossible to not notice that their Memorialization business segment which consists of Aurora Casket, Matthews Cremation, and their cemetery, memorial, and mausoleum division, is increasingly leading the company. The other two segments of Matthews International’s operating portfolio consist of what they call their Industrial Technologies segment and their SGK Brand Solutions segment. The company as a whole reported sales […]
For the first time that I can remember since I have followed what is termed the Death Care Index (DCI), the DCI for a period of time has outpaced the standard measures of America’s public companies, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq, and the S & P 500. For the time period of January 1, 2021, through the close of business last Friday, April 30, 2021, the Death Care Index has grown at a pace of 17.7%. The DCI, […]
I saw that quote in Microsoft’s 1st Quarter 2021 report last week and wondered how that will affect the death care industry. That’s not a unique thought for me because if you’ve followed my writing for any length of time you know that I like to look at other industries and then take what they are learning and try to figure out how it will eventually affect us. I think what Microsoft had to say speaks volumes to how we […]
Carriage Services was the first of our public death care companies to report on their 1st quarter of 2021 (January thru March 2021 numbers) when they did so last week. Even knowing that January 2021 had a high number of additional mortality in the United States because of the number of Covid-19 deaths, you have to look at the Carriage Services financials and be somewhat impressed. When the final mortality numbers come out as to additional Covid-19 related deaths that […]
The longer I am affiliated in the death care profession it seems the less I know. I know that is not true, but I am always amazed when I find some type of business out there in the death care profession that I did not know existed. There are a lot of concepts and a lot of ways to make that consumer client connection with those concepts and handle the final disposition of a human being. It’s pretty certain that […]
StoneMor, Inc., the Pennsylvania based consolidator and operator of cemeteries and funeral homes, has had a busy April. We’ve seen Moody’s upgrade their credit rating, we’ve seen insider trading purchases of the stock, and we’ve seen an announcement of refinanced debt. That and more leads a press release from Moody’s to state, “. . . .StoneMor’s increased liquidity position will be used to make strategic acquisitions to increase scale and grow profitability.” These announcements from StoneMor come on the heels […]
I visited, as I often do, with a former Senior Level Executive this week just to catch up on what was happening in his world and visit about a story Funeral Director Daily had recently ran. We talked about a lot of things — including COVID-19, and because of it, we had not seen each other in over a year. We talked about our own lives and how our “new habits” have become the norm and may stay that way […]
Former Vice-President Walter Mondale died Monday night at age 93. Being a Minnesotan like Mondale put me into a reminiscing mood and I thought of the 1970’s when Mondale was our state’s U.S. Senator and elected with President Jimmy Carter as Vice-President in 1976. It also reminded me of a lesson from my dad about business, specifically our funeral business and politics that I learned as a junior high school student (Middle School today) back in 1972. Back in 1972 […]
I’ve noticed with much interest over my career in funeral service that most funeral home owners are really up to date when it comes to market share percentage as compared to the competitor(s) in their market area. They all either watch the local obituaries or have someone else watch and count death numbers on their competitor(s) website to be up to date on this percentage. Holding on to that percentage rate is one aspect of making sure that your business […]
