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 we will bring you some news from a couple of casket companies today.

Batesville, long known for its casket products, is continuing their transition to a total solutions company for funeral homes.  To that end they are introducing their “Remembrance Store” which will be a co-branded turnkey e-commerce storefront designed to generate incremental revenue streams for funeral homes.

According to this recent press release from Batesville,  “families are increasingly turning to outside providers and often shopping online for urns, remembrance jewelry, keepsakes, and other memorial products, leaving funeral homes vulnerable to both lost revenue and relationships”.

According to that press release:

• 58% of pre-need and 64% of at-need families researched funeral products such as urns and jewelry online, highlighting a need for shoppable digital resources consumers can access prior to contacting the funeral home.

• 30% of families buy urns before contacting a funeral home.

• 38% of pre-need and 37% of at-need consumers purchased remembrance products through Amazon.

• 32% of pre-need and 36% of at-need families consider shopping online to be a more ideal place to purchase memorialization products vs. only 20% at funeral homes.

Batesville’s “Remembrance Store”  will give families who prefer to shop online the convenience of purchasing through their trusted funeral home, which would allow funeral homes to capture that online revenue that may be going to other sources at this time.

Private Label Caskets, operating out of Indianapolis, Indiana, recently posted the following notice to their website:

Another Announcement ––  While we didn’t see it as a press release on the Batesville website we did receive the following notice from Batesville on their Facebook page which appeared on our Facebook scroll on October 28:

“We’re honored that Private Label has chosen Batesville as their recommended domestic supplier for their customers.  In times of change, we believe strength comes from partnership — and we’re committed to making this transition seamless for every funeral home they serve.  At Batesville, we’re proud to honor the tradition that defines this profession while driving the transformation prepares it for the future.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) recently released this report which predicts that traditional burial in a casket will drop from today’s selection rate of 33.2% to approximately 13.0% –  a number that is lower than was originally thought —  by 2045.

We question what that might mean for casket companies in raw numbers.  Here’s some available statistics and some projected ideas that may give meaning to that answer.

In 2024, the United States reported approximately 3.1 million deaths with a 33.2% burial rate.  Extrapolating those numbers would mean that about 1,029,000 caskets were needed for those burials.

In 2050, projections tell us that the United States will grow to about 380 million people and the death rate per thousand people will grow from today’s level of about 9.06 deaths per 1,000 people to about 10.3 deaths per 1,000 people because of an “older average age”.  Projections tell us extrapolating those numbers would bring about a raw number death total of about 3.9 million residents.  At a 13.0% casket useage that would mean that about 507,000 caskets would be needed for those deaths.

Total US Population
1950 = 148 million, 2010 = 309 million, 2025 = 343 million

So, if those population, death rate, and disposition projections hold up over the next two decades you can see that only about 1/2 of the caskets used today will be needed in 2050.  If those numbers hold up there will probably be casket company consolidations and, as Batesville is doing, branching of the company into other segments.

U.S. Death Rate
1950=9.65/1000, 2010=8.00/1000, 2021=10.40/1000, 2021 represents a rise per pandemic

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

A few days ago The Pittsburgh Business Times published a feature story on hometown company Matthews International.  It’s a very interesting article that goes back into the history of the company and how it has now expanded into a diversified business that casts a shadow in a lot of industries. . . .including Death Care.

The article, which you can access here, also points out that from the company’s pre-Civil War beginnings to today that “virtually all” the businesses the company is involved in today stem from the same three businesses that they were involved in in the early 1900’s.

Like Death Care, the article states “Pittsburgh knows Matthews primarily for its memorialization business, which contributed $830 million of the $1.8 billion in annual sales in fiscal year 2024, which ended on Sept. 30. This segment includes cast bronze and granite memorials, businesses Matthews has been in since the early 1900s, and also caskets, cremation equipment and, most recently, embalming fluid and other funeral and cemetery supplies. It’s a big producer of cash flow for the company.”

The article also pointed out that “Matthews also continues to move forward in that legacy, especially since the company went public in 1994. Seeing changes in trends around its memorialization business — primarily the increase of cremation over traditional funerals — it moved into the cremation industry in 1996 and, two years later, acquired York to create a position in casket manufacturing. It did the same thing with granite markers when it acquired United Memorial Products Inc. in 2009, Aurora Casket Co. in 2015 and Star Granite & Bronze in 2018. Matthews is now the largest or second-largest in market share in each of these major categories. . . . . It expanded even more recently with May’s acquisition of The Dodge Co., a Massachusetts-based provider of embalming fluids and supplies, for $57 million.”

The complete article also delves into Matthews’ dry electrode battery business in which they have had a disagreement and lawsuit with EV auto maker Tesla.  CEO Joseph Bartolacci makes the point that the Tesla disagreement was less about who holds the patents for the technology (according to the article Matthews does) and more about how long Matthews could be kept from selling the process and equipment to others.

Liam Burke, a managing director of B. Riley Securities is para-phrased in the article with the following “While he doesn’t know the ins and outs of the battery business, Burke said he thinks Tesla’s intense interest in it — as well as the interest shown by competitors in the EV industry — says a lot.”

Another point brought up in the feature article is some dissatisfaction of certain shareholders who “would like to see better performance in the stock”.  That brings about some points on the new businesses that Matthews is trying to develop to compliment the solid earnings of their Memorialization unit.

CEO Bartolacci sums up the process at the end of the article when he says “Matthews strategy over the last two decades has been conscious, not random, and with the evolution of the next 175 years in mind”.

All in all, a really good, in-depth article touching on Matthews success, failures, and aspirations.

Related Article — This article was published July 1, 2025, by Reuters.  “Activist Barrington asks casket maker Matthews for board seats, warns of second battle”.  Reuters

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  One of the slogans that pops into my head when I read this article is “Jack of all trades, master of none”.  If you read the article you will probably agree with me that Matthews International has a lot of “irons in the fire”.  . . . And, that is great if your company is returning value to your shareholders.

However, when your company stock sold for $54.24 on July 6, 2015, and sells for less than half of that amount a decade later (Matthews sells for $25.44 as of Sunday) it might cause shareholders to pause and wonder if having so many different companies might not allow for a laser-focus on profitability and growth.  In essence, a $1000 investment in Matthews in 2015 is now worth approximately $470.  That may be why some shareholders are unhappy.

I see certain parallels in this story and the Hillenbrand Industry/Batesville situation.  From my (as a stockholder) point of view with Hillenbrand it always seemed like they wanted to diversify into businesses outside of Death Care even as Death Care brought them solid profits and earnings year after year.  They announced the sale of their Batesville unit on December 15, 2022, and now, not quite three years later, Hillenbrand Industry stock has sank almost 50% since that time. . . . .I find myself questioning if Hillenbrand sold the wrong parts of their company. . . .

One other perspective I have on the Matthews situation is that of the potential in their dry battery business that may be a big help in developing the EV auto industry.  If it is going to become a huge difference maker in that industry, what is keeping Tesla (and their majority owner Elon Musk) from putting in a bid to buy Matthews International and “own” the process?  Matthews has a market capitalization (shares of stock x price of stock) of about $780 million.  That price is more than likely within the reach of the man who once paid $44 billion for Twitter if he sees the value in the battery technology of Matthews going forward.

And, the purchase could be financed by spinning off the Memorial business of Matthews for a simple 1x of Memorialization segment sales. . . about $840 million.  For the record, Batesville had a reported 2022 fiscal year revenue of $625.6 million making its purchase by LongRange Capital for $761 million a multiple of about 1.2 times revenue.

In any regard, that is a “simplistic’ viewpoint that I have on the situation.

Again, a great article on Matthews International and a little tie-in with the historic and generational family-owned funeral homes in that even with longevity, in Matthews case 175 years of operation. . . . “The story is still being written”.

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Funeral Director Daily presents you the final report of our hat trick of financial reports this week.  Today we bring you the results of Matthews International’s operations for the period of January thru March 2025 which is the company’s 2nd fiscal quarter of the year.  Earlier this week we reported on the same period of time for Service Corporation International and Carriage Services. . . . It is the first time in my writing of Funeral Director Daily that I can remember having three quarterly reports coming out in the same week. . .

In any regards, there is a lot to digest in the Matthews International report.  As we always point out, Matthews is a diversified company with one of their three segments involved in Death Care.  That segment includes a cremation business that builds crematories, a wholesale casket business known as Matthews Aurora, and a segment dedicated to cemetery memorials and markers, as well as a complete line of cremation products.

For the 2nd Quarter of 2025 Matthews reported that their Memorialization Segment had revenues of $205.6 million which is down about 7.5% from the same period in 2024.  Furthermore, the company states that the Memorialization Segment has 6-month sales revenue of $396.1 million as compared to sales of $430.2 million for the first six months of fiscal 2024 — that is a drop of about 8.0%.

Here’s how Matthews International explained that sales slide in prepared remarks in a press release, that you can access here, on the company’s 2nd Quarter, “The Memorialization segment decline primarily resulted from lower unit volumes of caskets, cemetery memorials, and cremation equipment, partially offset by improved price realization. Lower casketed deaths resulting from the continued normalization of death rates post-pandemic impacted the segment’s sales compared to a year ago.”

In essence, it seems to me that, first of all, there were less casketed deaths in the quarter, but it also seems to say, “We raised prices and then sold less”.  In my opinion, that is probably a strategy that will not play well in today’s market.

The Matthews Dilemma:  In the press release about the 2nd Quarter 2025 results Matthews CEO Joseph Bartolacci also makes this comment, “The Company’s comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives for our entire portfolio remains ongoing. The Board and I firmly believe the inherent value of the Company is well above current trading levels and, over the next several months, we intend to identify the appropriate path to unlock this shareholder value. . ”

Matthews International, in the latest report, state a 6-month Net Loss before Income Taxes of over $17 million as compared to the same period of 2024 when they reported a $4.8 million positive income in the same category.

In getting to that equation, not only has the Memorialization Segment seen reduced year-over-year sales in 2Q25 but so has the Industrial Technologies Segment of the business — which had a sales decrease of 30.4%.  The only segment that had an increase was the SGK Brand Solutions Segment, which increased sales by about 6.2% year over year.

However, as this recent press release indicates, Matthews International has recently sold what appears to be about a 60% equity interest in the SGK Brand Solutions Segment of the company.

Related Article —  “Matthews International sells SGK Brand Solutions”.  Pennsylvania Business Report (PA)

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As a Death Care publication I look at the business situation at Matthews International with a wonder of how will it all turn out.  The SGK Brand Solutions Segment sale should bring in some much needed capital which one would expect would be used to turn around the revenue declines at the Memorialization and Industrial Technologies segments.

It should also be noted that CEO Bartolacci made this comment about the sales in the Industrial Technologies Segment, “. . .demand and interest in our energy storage solutions are regaining strength as customer quotes since early February 2025 have exceeded $100 million.”   That fact would also be a positive development in getting the company back on track.

With total company sales down about 10% for the first six months of Fiscal Year 2025 ($829.4 million as compared to $921.2 million for the first six month os FY2024) I would expect that there is some pressure from stockholders to turn things around.

In my opinion there is a hope that the energy storage solutions that Matthews has invested in turns out to be a viable winning product and I would also expect some type of move to regain positive momentum in the Death Care/Memorialization segment as well.

I expect the 2nd half of Matthews International’s 2025 fiscal year, and the decisions made in that time period, to quite  possibly be the most significant and decisive six months in charting the future plans and strategies for the company’s next decade.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Funeral Director Daily’s analysis of the Death Care Index (DCI) for the 1st Quarter of 2025 shows that the four public companies that comprise the index held up favorably as a whole when compared against the larger followed indexes such as the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial averages.

Editors Note:  This article was ready to go before the markets dropped in value last Thursday and Friday.  I continued to keep it in the que for being published regardless because to me it represented a point in time and how Death Care compared to the rest of the investment world for the period of January 1, 2025 until March 31, 2025, a time period which did not include last Thursday and Friday.

For the quarter the DCI was down in stock price, compared to the first day of the year by about 3.9%.  That number, negative as it was, still beat both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 and trailed only the composite average of the Dow Jones.  Here’s how those larger indexes fared for the quarter:

• Nasdaq:    -10.3%
• S&P 500:  -4.7%
• Dow Jones Industrials: -0.9%

Here’s a table of how the four companies that comprise the FDD Death Care Index fared:

As you can see, investors in three of the four DCI companies valued the companies at virtually the same valuations as they were valued at the beginning of the year.  The one exception to that fact was that the value of Matthews International dropped almost 20% for the quarter.

To be fair, only about 45-48% of Matthews International’s revenue comes from Death Care.  They are the parent company of Matthews Aurora Caskets and Matthews Cremation as well as offer products in the cemetery memorialization business.

In all fairness to the Death Care market and Matthews International, it was probably not the memorialization segment of the company that lead to the stock drop.  As this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relates, during the first quarter of 2025 Matthews had both a challenge to its board membership and announced the sale of one of the other non-Death Care companies in its business portfolio.

Matthews Board Chairman Alvaro Garcia-Tunon made this comment in the Post-Gazette article, “We appreciate the constructive dialogue that we’ve had with our shareholders and want to thank them for their feedback and support. That said, we know we have more work ahead to improve performance and deliver the results our shareholders expect from us.”

That same article made note of this situation and wrote of Garcia-Tunon, “He called the results of the vote a “validation of Matthews’ strategy, our board and the leadership of our CEO Joe Bartolacci, as well as the governance actions we have taken in recent years in response to shareholder feedback.”

The Big “Melt-Down” –  As alluded to in the Editor’s note above, the public stock markets had a “melt-down” on Thursday and Friday, more than likely due to the tariffs imposed by President Trump.  The result of that situation, so far, has had the major broad-based market indexes drop by about 10-12% over the two days.

For your information, I put together this small chart of the DCI companies performance in the few days between the end of the 1st Quarter and Friday — a 4-day period.  In comparison to the major indexes, the Death Care Index is down only 6%.  In “relative” terms, that’s again favorable to the broader indexes.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  There’s bound to be some anxiety in the greater markets, not only in the United States but in markets around the world, as President Trump sets his sails on his vision for America’s economy.  I think the the relative stability of the Death Care companies stock prices both for the quarter and during the “Melt-down” indicates that investors don’t believe that the business fortunes of these companies, especially those that deal in services rather than products, will be much affected by President Trump’s greater economic vision.

Disclaimer— The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily holds stock positions in Service Corporation International, Carriage Services, and Security National Financial Corporation.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

It didn’t take long for an investment advisor to get a take on what they think about Matthews International’s 4Q Earnings Report of last week.  The article from Seeking Alpha’s contributer Valkyrie Trading Society is titled, “Matthews International:  Signs of Deleveraging and Margin Improvement”.  You can access the article here.

Here’s a short snippet of what the article says of Matthew’s Memorialization Segment, “Memorialization deserves some focus since it likely contributed to the enthusiasm today. EBITDA is up nicely despite sales declines thanks to inventory costing dynamics, and also the fact that cost-cutting is taking effect in this business. Growth remains inorganic with bolt-ons for the most part, with the opportunity for that continuing, but the important thing is that pricing is improving and the environment for casketed deaths is normalizing post-COVID. . . . “

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Matthews International, which provides memorialization products and cremation solutions among its multi-faceted business segments announced their Fiscal 4th Quarter and Fiscal Year End results last Thursday.  Matthews operates on a fiscal year that ends on September 30 of each year.

While the company had some positive attributes for the quarter such as reducing company debt by $53.8 million, Sales and Adjusted EBITDA for the company both declined for the quarter and the year end in comparison to last year for the same time periods.  As a company, 4th Quarter 2024 Revenues totaled about $446.6 million for the quarter as compared to $480.1 million for 4Q23 — that’s a decrease of about 7%.  For the Fiscal Year ending September 30, 2024, Total Revenues totaled $1.79 billion as compared to FY2023’s number of $1.88 billion — that’s a yearly decrease in sales of about 4.8%.

Total Adjusted EBITDA for the company dropped to $205.1 million for the year compared to 2023’s Fiscal Year total of $225.8 million — a drop of about 9.2% on the year.

Matthews operates in three segments — one of which is the Memorialization Segment which includes cemetery products, caskets, and cremation products.  That segment is the largest, by sales of the three segments and accounted for about 46% of company sales.  It did, however, see a reduction in annual sales from $842 million in FY23 to $829 million in FY24 — a drop of about 1.6%.  The segment’s Adjusted EBITDA almost kept up with last years and can be basically called “flat” for the year — it actually dropped by less than 1%. . . from $163.9 million to $162.5 million.

Here’s what Matthews International President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said in prepared statements in the press release about the Memorialization Segment, “The Memorialization segment reported higher adjusted EBITDA for the current quarter despite lower unit volumes, which were related to a decline in U.S. deaths compared to a year ago. Ongoing cost control efforts combined with improved price realization were the key drivers in the improvement in operating margins. . . . .We expect another solid performance for our Memorialization business in fiscal 2025 as U.S. deaths appear to have generally normalized following COVID and we are projecting continued growth in our cremation-related products sales.” 

You can access the Matthews International November 21, 2024, press release here.

Stock Price Rises:  Interestingly enough, on the news of lower quarterly and annual sales and profits, Matthews International stock price jumped almost 21% on Friday after Thursday’s market closed press release.  Matthews International stock closed at $30.84 per share after opening that day at $25.49.

It’s difficult for one to read into why the value went up over 20% in one day, but the company’s earnings press release did show the SGK Brand Solution Segment gaining sales and the situation of retiring over $53 million of debt.

It could also have to do with the Industrial Technologies Segment of the company and opportunities there.   Here’s an interesting statement that President/CEO Bartolacci included in the earnings press release, “Lastly, as growth opportunities for the Industrial Technologies segment continue to emerge, the Company has been exploring strategies with respect to its portfolio of businesses.   Accordingly, we have retained J.P. Morgan to support the evaluation of potential strategic alternatives.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  This is total speculation on my part but, it’s interesting for me to see the stock price jump to over $30 per share on Friday after not closing at that level since March 2024.  I think the terms “potential strategic alternatives” lead to speculation by many that there could be acquistions on the horizon by Matthews or there could be a divestiture of one of the Matthews segments to come.  Again, from my point of view there is plenty of money in the private equity circles looking to invest.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

The people behind Titan Casket are not afraid of doing things outside the ordinary as compared to how the funeral industry has done things for the past 125 years.  I’m guessing that in 1906 when John Hillenbrand purchased the Batesville Coffin Company and changed the name to Batesville Casket Company his customers were the fledging funeral homes starting across the nation who then re-sold or “retailed” those caskets to clientele arranging funerals for their loved ones.. . . . . and, I’m guessing for over a hundred years since then nobody really figured out how to make those casket sales, and profit, with any other modus operandi.

Enter the 21st Century and the people behind Titan Casket.  The people behind Titan figured they could leverage America’s new online information era and bring those caskets direct to the consumer (DTC) at a much lower cost than if the caskets were sold at retail prices upon death at America’s funeral homes.

It’s been no easy task, but the people at Titan Casket can now get any of about 1,000 caskets to almost any funeral home in the lower 48 states with a timely delivery. . . all at a much lower cost to the consumer.  And while they are continuously improving that process they are not stopping there. . . .they are bringing urns and keepsake jewelry direct to the consumer also.

Last week I learned of their latest innovation.  That innovation is the process of consumers paying for their casket in a preneed fashion.  Titan has a program that allows a consumer to pay for a casket over a 60-month time-table with no finance charges.

It’s a smart idea for their customers.  No longer will families have to pick their Titan brand casket under adverse situations at the time of death which sometimes is done with the servicing funeral home also trying to make a casket sale.  Buying direct, in a preneed fashion will take some of the conflict out of the process for the consumer.

To learn more about Titan’s Direct-to-the-Consumer preneed program click here.

Related — If you weren’t aware of it yet, Titan Casket also has a partnership program with existing funeral homes.  You can learn how that program works by clicking here.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s probably good every once in a while to look back at the history of our profession and see how things change.  When Hillenbrand was first selling his “caskets” most of the revenue that the consumer death care purveyors took in probably came from the sale of the merchandise.  Laying the person into the casket and carrying it to the cemetery probably did not involve much professinal services revenue for the funeral establishment.

And then services came into being. . . embalming, of which I can find the first schools for such in 1882 probably brought the first level of services and embalming into the revenue sphere.  It’s my guess that for the next almost 100 years services and merchandise, such as caskets, vaults, and memorial folders, offered  different and multiple lines of revenue for America’s funeral homes that were popping up from coast to coast.

However, we have morphed into a society that now chooses cremation 70% of the time and we have moved from major revenues from merchandise to a combination of merchandise and services, to now a profession that can count on service revenues but no longer the major revenues from merchandise. . . with a 70% cremation rate, merchandise is almost an ancillary item nowadays.

That’s why it is so important to look at your merchandise revenue and really know the costs and other facility dynamics of maintaining a “showroom” of models that might only be purchased by 30% of your clientele.  Do you know what your cost/benefit is for this as compared to making that square footage an extra hospitality room?

When we built our new funeral home in 2005 we did not include a selection room in the planning.  We used that space for hospitality and had the merchandise selected be done via a large flat screen monitor in the arrangement room.  Clientele could, and still can look at hundreds of caskets arranged by material such as wood or metal or by color or by price list and select right off the screen knowing that the following morning that unit will be in our facility.

Yep. . . . it is not your grandpa’s funeral home anymore.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”