The Wall Street Journal in this recent article (you may find a paywall here) estimates that over the past 5 years Americans have gained a total of $63 trillion in personal wealth.  And, this article from Yahoo Finance states “. . . the top 20% — the high-earning American households — are thriving because they have seen immense gains in their stock portfolios and home values in recent years.”

Two results of that personal wealth gain are that Americans are consuming at record levels and these same Americans are continuing to look for more investment opportunities.  Part of those investments are going into public stocks and bonds, but I’m guessing that more and more investors, with asset qualifications, are putting money into private equity in growing sums as well.  As you can see from the chart below, as good as the public markets have been for asset growth, private equity returns have left them in the dust.

Private Equity returns vs. other returns.

All that money and all of those potential deals leads me to seeing a sign of caution.  I’ve always tried to do everything on a level keel.  Too much of one thing has never been good for me — as much as I like to golf, three days in a week is enough.  Same with a vacation — it’s fun and relaxing, but I always want to get back to work.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

So, that brings me to my thought process —  with all the money being thrown at businesses, including funeral homes, by private equity, when will the good deals end and somebody in their quest for “growth” make the wrong decision?  I don’t know when it will happen and who it will happen to, but at some point the quest for “growth” will lead to bad decisions by somebody.

It just happened in Minnesota with a home remodeling company known as Minnesota Rusco.  You can read an article from the Minnesota Tribune here that lets the reader know that Minnesota Rusco, a Minnesota staple since 1955, was acquired by a private equity firm that was “rolling-up” home remodeling firms across the country and now is looking into bankruptcy.  Somebody either didn’t know the business that well or know the value of the “local-aspect” of these acquired businesses and it looks like the investment will be lost . . . . and the employees of Minnesota Rusco will probably be on the unemployment line.

I recently came across this article titled “There’s a lot of money in Death”:  Funeral consolidation hits Western Mass”.  The article goes on to illustrate that even in some smaller funeral homes and roll-ups involving them, that private equity is involved.  Here’s the website of a private equity firm which lists Milestone Funeral Partners as one of their investments.

It’s no secret that a large number of family funeral homes will be on the market in the next few years.  And, many of them will have the volume and be in a location that will be highly desireable for the national and regional companies to compete for.  If you are one of these owners planning to sell, make sure you know your business value and make sure that you know your buyer.

Because . . . .  I don’t think the good times will last forever and someone will get hurt when the dominoes fall.

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

According to this article from the Beloit (WI) Daily News, funeral home owners Jarod and Tania Williams have acquired the two locations of the Brian Mark Funeral Home.  According to the Brian Mark Funeral Home website, which you can access here, the company owned and operated funeral homes in Beloit and Clinton, Wisconsin.

Jarod and Tania Williams have operated the Rosman-Uehling-Kinzer Funeral Home in Beloit as well as the D.L. Newcomer Funeral Home in Brodhead and the Houck Funeral Home in Dodgeville (WI).

You can see a new updated website for the Beloit funeral homes here.

From the Brian Mark Funeral Home website it appears that Brian Mark will continue to work at the Brian Mark Funeral Home.

More news from the world of Death Care:

We keep hearing that about 50% of the family owned funeral homes in North America will change hands within the next decade. . . .If there are about 20,000 funeral home in the U.S. and Canada that means that about 10,000 will be sold.

That’s a lot of transactions.  The companies that help broker those deals should have some pretty good years during the next decade if that thinking continues to come to fruition.

One thing that I wonder is “Who is going to be the buyer of all those businesses?”  The consolidators want the larger firms, focusing on firms of at least 300 cases unless there is a strategic “bolt-on” to present operations.  It will be interesting to see who the buyers are and what the price points will be going forward. . . . However, this article is not about the sale of your funeral home but what you do after the sale. . . . . .

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I faced that dilemma about a dozen years ago when for several reasons my brother and I decided it was time to exit our 4th generation funeral business and move into the next stage of our lives.  While our children were welcome to work at our funeral business we were also deliberate in letting them experience the “big, wide, world” where there were all kinds of other occupations that they might enjoy more.

Turns out that none of them were interested in Death Care and have all landed on their feet in occupations of their choosing.  Using Tom Johnson at Johnson Consulting Group as our guide we navigated the marketing and sale process of our business and found that there was “Life after Funeral Service”.

Retirement, if you can call what I’ve done since I sold the funeral home “Retirement” carries its own cadence to it that is much different than the cadence of operating a funeral home where there seemed to be an endless amount of “things on my plate” that were left for the next day.  That job, as much as I enjoyed it, had a cadence to it that never really let my mind get to far detached from what was happening at the fuenral home — there was always something that I was responsible for “tomorrow”.

Just last week I encountered this article that is titled “5 key retirement mistakes to avoid” published by Yahoo Finance.  I’ve had almost a dozen years to look back on my situation and I found it interesting how in looking back Angie and I have avoided most of those mistakes and our general intuition seems to have moved in sync with what the article states.

For instance, one of the mistakes the article points out is that people move to places to live simply to save on taxes.  We operated our funeral home and lived in Minnesota, which is a high tax state.  After retirement we were intrigued about moving to Florida for the six months required to claim residency there which would lower our tax burden and continue to live the other six months in Minnesota.

However, we tried renting for three months first to get an idea where we would purchase in Florida and how much we liked it.  We loved the three months in Florida but time proved to us that we were “Minnesotans at heart” and enjoyed being in Minnesota with our family for Christmas and three months in Florida was enough for us.  Angie also pointed out that I’m a “Type A” person and that if and when hurricanes were damaging Florida I would be at my wit’s end in Minnesota wondering what was happening to our home in Florida.

So, we continue to rent for three months in Florida and have been able to always rent in the same golf and living complex from when we first went.  We also now know that three months in the dead of Minnesota’s winter is just the right time for us — we are ready to come home following that time as we are still embedded in our Minnesota community as well.

In any regards, since we have lots of funeral home owners who read Funeral Director Daily, and some of them are probably at this thought stage, I thought this article would be a good little primer on some things to think about when going into retirement after you sell your funeral home.

For those of you that don’t want to read the full article, here are the 5 mistakes cited:

Mistake #1 – Underspending in early retirement  (While you are healthy and able to do things with no restrictions)

Mistake #2 – Prioritizing taxes over happiness in retirement location

Mistake #3 – Focusing too much on market risk while ignoring other threats (like inflation)

Mistake #4 – Poor tax bracket managment.

Mistake #5 – Claiming Social Security too early

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

It’s been predicted that the next couple of years could see massive ownership changes in the business of funeral homes.  While the public companies in the business generally let us know of their acquisitions via press releases and quarterly earnings reports it is a little harder to get an idea on what is happening in the private funeral home ownership sector.

However, at Funeral Director Daily we scour newspaper reports on a daily basis in North America for changes in funeral home ownership.  We find a lot of announced ownership changes. . . . there are a lot more than we can report simply because many times small local newspapers are now putting pay walls up and we don’t feel right about linking articles with pay walls.

However, here’s just a few of the funeral homes that have been reported changing ownership in the past couple of months or so that don’t have pay walls to the articles.

California:  Debbie Plato takes full ownership of Callaghan Mortuary and Livermore Crematory:  Continuing a legacy of compassion and excellence.  Cision PR web

• Callaghan Mortuary-Livermore Crematory website

Ohio:  Talk about Clyde:  New Owners at Auxter Funeral Home.  Fremont News-Messneger (OH)

• Auxter-Recker Funeral Home website

Iowa:  Cranston Funeral Home in Fairfield acquires Gould Funeral Home.  Southeast Iowa Times (IA)

• Cranston Family Funeral Home website

Nebraska:  Marshall finishing 54 years in the mortuary business.  Gude Funeral Home to take over services.  News Channel Nebraska (IA)

• Gude Funeral Homes website

Iowa:  Nishna Valley Funeral and Cremation Services holds Sidney ribbon cutting, recognizes Marshall’s over 40 years of service.  NMA Land Radio (NE)

• Nishna Valley Funeral and Cremation Services website

Texas:  Broussard’s Mortuary has new owners.  Beaumont Enterprise (TX)

• Broussard’s Mortuary website

Connecticut:  Two Naugatuck funeral homes merge leaving only one other in borough.  CT Post (CT)

• Buckmiller Ford Mengacci Funeral Home website 

Pennsylvania:  2 companies partner to purchase central PA funeral home.  Penn Live Patriot News (PA)

• Snyder Bean Funeral Home website

. . . and here’s an interesting expansion in the state of Ohio:

Local family funeral home expanding.  WKBN Vienna News (OH)

• Stewart-Kyle Funeral Home website

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Taking after-death planning out of the unknown:  Know your options.  Seattle Times (WA)
• Can you legally be composted after death in Louisiana?  Here’s what the law says.  KPEL Radio (LA)
• Forest Lawn unveils Legacy Mausoleum among rising burial demand.  Video news story and print article.  WGRZ NBX Channel 2 – Buffalo (NY)
• UC professor advocates for equal death care.  WYSO Ideastream Public Media (OH)

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

Where will future revenue growth for the funeral industry come from?  That’s a thought that I have after I did a small study or exercise on growth revenues for certain industries.  While my study is not scientific I looked at selected companies to gain an idea of how well the respective industries are gaining revenue in the past six years — since a pre-pandemic time.

I used three public companies in each industry that I checked on — Death Care, Technology, Grocery, Retail, and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR).  I wanted to find out how “Top-Line” revenue in each industry had grown during that time.  The “Revenue” of three companies in each category were totaled to give a number that was then compared to the prior year number of each.

The companies that were used for the Death Care or Funeral Industry comparison were Service Corporation International (SCI), Carriage Services, and the Memorialization Segment of Matthews International.

I used the same type of thought process for the other four industries — one large leader (like SCI) and two smaller companies.  My results were interesting and because the revenue numbers between the categories varied greaty — such as a total of $5.4 billion in revenue for the three companies involved in Funeral Industry compared to $826 billion for the three companies in the Technology sector —  I suggest that you look at the graph line shifts from year-to-year rather than the segment revenue dollar amounts.

In my opinion, looking at the year-to-year revenue change gives some type of indication of how much revenue is flowing into each sector.

In my opinion, the results I found were very interesting. . . in some cases, in a comparative mode, positive for the Funeral Industry.  However, after you see the charts below I will tell you why I think there is some reason for concern in the Death Care profession.

First of all, some good news for funeral service.  If you simply look at the revenue growth from 2019 through 2024, you will find that the growth of revenue, on a comparative basis has grown more for the Funeral Industry than for either the “Grocery”  and “Retail” categories.  Here is the percentage revenue growth for the five categories from 2019 through 2024:

• Technology – 78.0%
• Quick Service Food – 37.6%
• Funeral Industry – 30.00%
• Grocery Industry – 26.0%
• Retail Industry – 25.3%

Funeral Service Industry Revenues

Companies Used — SCI, Carriage Services, Matthews International Memorial Segment

Quick Reaction:  Revenue increased 27.5% from 2019 to 2021 (Pandemic Years) but has increased a total of only 3.2% since.  In my opinion, Death Industry revenue seems to be “flatlining”. . . .Not a good sign.

Grocery Revenues

Companies Used — Kroger, Sprouts, Albertsons

Quick Reaction:  Solid, annual growth.  Slowed to 1.8% in 2024 possibly because of inflation and customers looking to lower-cost alternatives.

Technology Revenue

Companies Used — Amazon, Verizon, Cisco.  (Stayed away from the high-flying chip business)

Quick Reaction:  Over 20% growth through 2020 (pandemic related).  Continual high growth although Verizon is flat as cell-phone technology is waning compared to other technologies.  Amazon grew a whopping 67.7% during the pandemic years (2019 thru 2021) more than likely stimulating growth in “online purchasing” in general. . . . In my opinion, this “online purchasing choice” will eventually affect traditional Death Care in some capactity.

Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Revenue

Companies Used — McDonalds, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Yum Brands

Quick Reaction:  A pandemic related drop in revenues in 2020.  Growth is starting to grow.  It has possibly been restrained by staffing shortages and inflation.

Retail Revenue

Companies Used:  Wal-Mart, Kohls, Caseys Gas Stations

Quick Reaction:  Winners and Losers.  Department stores such as Kohl’s have actually lost top-line revenue.  Casey’s seems to shift depending on the price of gasoline.  Wal-Mart grew only 8.6% during the pandemic years, slowing their growth.  Considering the growth of Amazon, one might believe that universal “online shopping” is actually cutting into Wal-Mart’s growth.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  This exercise was simply a non-scientific comparison of what in my mind was somewhat “comparable” companies in differing industries.  While I’ve given you a “Quick Reaction” of mine of each segment, your extrapolation of the data I have presented may be very different than mine and that is understandable.  Nobody’s perceptions and opinions are right or wrong. . .and are just that — perceptions and opinions and not fact.

“Where will future funeral industry revenues come from???” —  This question is probably the most concerning question to me after looking at the revenues of SCI, Carriage Services, and Matthews International Memorialization Segment.  In the business year of 2022 those three units had reported cumulative total top-line reported revenue of $5.31 billion.  Two years later the comparative number was $5.4 billion  —  in round numbers about $100 million more which is only about a 1.7% increase over two years. . . . . And in those same years you would guess that their inflation related costs were up by much more.

As Baby Boomers lose their lives it is expected that the number of deaths in the United States will rise  — funeral practitioners have been told that for years.  However, it appears to me that we are also reaching a point where American consumers are, on average, selecting services that bring in less revenue per case to funeral homes.

Death Care is somewhat unique as a product.  It’s a necessity that happens once to each human being.  Market share and customs might shift, but it is impossible to create a higher demand for the product — you can only die once.   And, as traditional funeral homes raise prices to cover always incurring inflationary costs some consumers choose lower priced services to counter those price increases.  So, in some equations, even if you do more services, actual revenue could be less because clientele may be choosing lower priced options.  It’s one reason that increasing revenue is getting tougher and tougher to find.

Couple that with the expanding options of Death Care in the niche fields of natural organic reduction, alkaline hydrolysis, and other areas such as non-funeral home operated memorial services and you can see why an increase in revenues might be hard to find in the future.

I think this thought process is a stark reminder to those in the traditional funeral and cremation business that while you have to continue to control expenses to maintain margins you also need to be looking out on your flanks and be concerned about the potential for the loss of, or at least, slower growth of revenue.

In my opinion, those can be sobering thoughts to traditional funeral home businesses that have a long history of high margins from the sale of traditional services and merchandise for decades.  Smart business management is necessary now more than ever before to keep the profits rolling in.

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

According to this February article from Sharecafe of Australia, public funeral home consolidator and operator Propel Funeral Partners recently has executed agreements on the purchase of two historical funeral homes in New Zealand.  According to the article it brings the company’s operations up to 198 facilities which includes 38 cremation facilities and 9 cemeteries.

According to the same article, Propel has entered into these agreements with:

• Twentyman’s Funeral Services and Thames Crematory which has operated since 1867 and includes a pet services division also.
• Richmond Funeral Home and Claremond crematorium, a Death Care provider since 1887.

The article from Sharecafe also makes this statement, “Together, these businesses conducted approximately 600 funerals last year, generating $AUS 3.7 million in revenue  ($US 2.34 million). They operate across seven locations, with Propel acquiring three properties outright and leasing the remaining four, with purchase options available on three of them.”

The article and this article on the subject transaction from Grafa lists the total potential acquisition cost once metrics are met as $AUS 7.3 million ($US 4.62 million).

Related —  Propel Funeral Partners website

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I like to find these type of “transaction” articles because it helps me in looking at the valuations in the Death Care business.  I’m no expert on funeral home transactions and current prices but I do try to look at the numbers to keep somewhat abreast of what I can learn about funeral home values.

First of all, you can tell that the properties are more than likely highly cremation facilities because the revenues listed are US $ 2.34 million.  We are also given the data of about 600 services annually between the acquired firms.  That would make their Revenue per Case come out to a number near US$ 3,900.  In my opinion, that number would be a number indicating a high number of cremation services.

Secondly, when you look at the purchase price of US $ 4.62 million for an annual revenue of US$ 2.34 million it comes out to a purchase number that is roughly twice the annual revenue (1.97x).

Again, we don’t know the value of the property included in the sale, but it does give us a data point to look at.

If, and when, you decide to either sell your funeral home and/or purchase an additional funeral home, the more data points that you have knowledge of is helpful.  However, it is impossible to get a great handle on these sale numbers if you don’t know the total equation  — that is real estate value, average case sale, etc.

That’s why having an experienced team in your corner that does mergers, sales, and acquisitions every day is so valuable.  If you are ever looking for that type of help look no further than my friends at Johnson Consulting Group.

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

While it certainly is speculation on their part, one research contributor at Seeking Alpha, Caffital Research, says this about publicly held funeral home and cemetery operator Carriage Services, “The company has been quiet on the M&A front to improve the financial position throughout 2024, but with debt levels reaching a more desirable level, 2025 could return Carriage Services’ M&A activity.”

The article which was dated January 15, 2024, can be found here. 

While Funeral Director Daily will refrain from giving our own comments on the company, here are a couple of quotes from the article:

 

• “In the most recently reported Q3 report, revenues grew 11.3% year-on-year through strategic pricing increases in funeral contracts, and more notably, rapid growth in sold preneed interment rights – revenues from preneeds continued to grow at a rapid 27.1% pace in the quarter after strong momentum in previous quarters as well.” 

 

• “Although Carriage Services’ strategy focuses on consolidating the highly fragmented industry through accretive M&A, the company stayed quiet on the M&A front for the entirety of 2024, even divesting some non-core assets.”

 

• “Carriage Services’ operations have shown solid momentum organically with good pricing increases and growing demand in cemetery preneeds, also carrying into underlying profitability.”

 

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Carriage Services.

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

With one acquisition announced in December and another in January Newcomer Funeral Service, based in Topeka, Kansas, continues to grow.  The Newcomer website states “Newcomer Funeral Service Group is an independent funeral home, crematory, and cemetery service provider based in Topeka, Kansas with operations in ten states.”

According to this press releasefrom December 2024, the company acquired the Jones Funeral Home and Cannon Funeral Home in the Albany, New York, metropolitan market.  The press release makes this comment “The funeral homes will continue to be led by John H. Cannon, who has served thousands of Capital Region families throughout his 44-year career. This acquisition complements Newcomer’s existing presence in the area, where we serve families from locations in Colonie and Latham.”

In a prepared statement in the press release John Cannon made this statement, “My team and I are honored to serve this community and care for families as if they were our own. By joining with the Newcomer family, I am confident that together with our superb staff, Cannon Funeral Home and Jones Funeral Home will continue to provide the best care possible to the Capital Region.”

The press release continued with this comment, “The funeral homes will continue to operate under the same name, with the same great team. Newcomer will provide additional support as needed to continue the Cannon and Jones tradition of excellence.”

And, according to the following press release the company purchased the Grayson Funeral Homes in Charleston and New Washington, Indiana, earlier in January 2025.  According to that release “Grayson strengthens our presence in Southern Indiana and the Greater Louisville area.”

In a prepared statement from that press release Chris Grayson made this comment, “My family and our associates are honored to serve Charlestown and New Washington and care for families as if they were our own. We are comfortable joining the Newcomer family knowing they share our values of service and that Grayson Funeral Homes will continue to provide the best care possible to Southern Indiana.”

Here is the website for the Newcomer Funeral Service Group.

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

Funeral Director Daily published an article last Friday about the number of, or lack of,  funeral directors in the field and one of our thought processes during that article was that it is apparent that many rural funeral homes have a difficult time in acquiring the professional help necessary to operate their businesses.  Part of the reasoning behind that is that it appears that younger funeral directors are somewhat more  reluctant to have a heavy “on call” schedule than older and more experienced funeral directors have been in the past.

It was also suggested that consolidation of the rural operating funeral homes may help with that situation.

One of the growing trends that I have seen over the past couple of years is that one funeral home in a rural community acquires its competitor when that competitor wants to retire.  To be fair, I’ve also seen two funeral homes simply merge into one funeral home or at least announce that situation while not elaborating on the ownership of the “new” company.

This recent article from the Merrill Foto News of Wisconsin is the latest article that I’ve seen announcing two local funeral homes joining forces.  It provides news of Waid Funeral and Cremation Service and Taylor-Stine Funeral & Cremation uniting under a regional ownership group and being rebranded as Taylor-Stine-Waid Funeral & Cremation.

In this case, according to the article, the company will operate from both current facilities giving consumers a choice of where they prefer to be served.  According to the news article, “The combined staff will work across both locations, ensuring continuity and support for families at every step. This collaborative approach enhances service options while upholding the personal and compassionate care that has defined both businesses for many years”.

Here is the website for Taylor-Stine-Waid Funeral & Cremation

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  According to data from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) this article from the Carolina News & Reporter states that more than 60% of current United States funeral home owners have plans to retire by 2029.  If that is truly the case there is a window for these types of “same market” acquisitions to be consummated.

Some times competitor acquisitions are tough to approach because of the competitive nature that some funeral home owners have about their business.  However, if you can look by that competitive nature to have a discussion with a competitor it could work out best for both of you.

For the acquiring owner you now have two facilities and more staff to cover nights and weekends. . . meaning that each staff member probably has to do that duty less.  i.e. if the two funeral homes had 3 funeral directors each they were each on call every 3rd night.  After an acquisition, if you kept the same number of staff they would be on call, theoretically. only every 6th night.  That should help in retaining staff.

Or, it could be that one director leaves or retires and you have only five directors — which you deem acceptable to cover the business of the combined firms.  The directors come out better with being on every 5th night instead of every 3rd night and the new ownership is now paying salary and benefits for 5 funeral directors instead of 6 funeral directors. . . . bringing the additional salary to the bottom line which can help with acquisition costs.

Finally, the selling or retiring owner may come out better as well because a “same market” buyer has the ability to make use of the economies-of -scale as suggested in the salary savings from the preceding paragraph.  Dependent on the situation, the acquiring funeral home may be able to get economies-of-scale savings on facilities, auto fleet, contracted services such as accounting, and clerical help as well.  That potential savings may allow the acquiring funeral director to offer a higher price to the selling owner than an out-of-market buyer could pay.

I made a “same-market” acquisition at one time that worked out very well for me and I believe it worked out very well for the seller as well.  I was competitive back in my funeral home days and over the years when I approached the potential seller it did not get very far.  However, a 3rd party eventually approached him also and then brought the deal to me which got worked out with the seller’s blessing.

If you are in this type of acquisition mode and don’t think you can approach your competitor, do you have a 3rd party that might be able to do it for you?

Here’s another acquisition report — “Olney, Foust purchase Switzer Funeral Home”.  The Bradford Era (PA)

Olney-Foust Funeral Homes & Crematory website

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

Funeral Director Daily does a good job of notifying our readers when the large corporate companies acquire new funeral homes.  It appears that these transacations are a consistent regular occurrence, although there are some ebbs and flows to the pipeline of deals.  We also know that large corporate consolidators and their purchases are not the only place that acquisitions and mergers are taking place in the funeral home space.

When I peruse the internet for articles that would interest Funeral Director Daily readers I notice mergers, acquisitions, and bolt-on purchases for hub and spoke firms happening often.  There is a lot of that happening around the United States in our profession.  It is just not something that we bring to our readers every day because the interest in the individual transactions is truly local and maybe regional in scope, but not national news in our profession.

What is “National” in scope about these transactions is that they are happening.  It’s been said for a long time in our business that there will be a large amount of funeral home owners wanting to retire with no family interested in following in their footsteps as the world of funeral home ownership changes.. . . . . . .From what I read and hear, I think that time is upon us.

Here are a couple of articles that I recently came upon that show some of the different types of transactions that are going on. . .

Funeral Director Daily take:  Charles Dickens wrote his classic “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1859. . . that’s a long time ago.  However, I think about that story when I read about funeral homes being bought and sold.  You see, I think the “Tale or story of your funeral home” might be the deciding factor in who will acquire it if you decide to sell and retire.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

What matters to the different potential buyers is if you are located in a metropolitan city, or a suburban city, or a growing regional center. . . . or are you in a small isolated community with not much growth potential?  Wherever your funeral home is located the case can be made that when put it up for sale you will, more than likely be a target for some company. . . . but the tale, or story, of your funeral home will determine who that company is.

Metropolitan, suburban and regional center funeral homes in growing areas probably have great value and bring in multiple offers, but a single funeral home in a one fuenral home community that is holding its own with population stability will, more than likely, have some value to a neighboring community funeral home as well.

It appears to me that the companies that operate as “multiple funeral home” owners are continuously looking for more locations to ramp their economies of scale.  Every owner wants, for eonomies of scale, to have a situation where their case load per director is growing. . . And, I think as preneed sales become increasingly more important to funeral homes that will move firms to grow even faster to ramp up their numbers.

However, on the other hand, I’ve noticed some operators stop acquisitions for acquisitions sake. . . .These type of operators are making sure that each and every location that they purchase can carry profitability on its own.  That’s important too. . . especially as fixed costs are rising and one does not want to get caught with a business with high fixed-costs where the average retail sale is going down — especially if the business is not adding volume.

Anyway, I’m seeing businesses change hands.  And, the transactions are probably more complicated than they were ten years ago.   What’s at stake — especially if one makes a purchase mistake — is also larger and could be business and life altering if going-forward assumptions are wrong.  If I was looking to buy or sell I’d make sure that I had an expert such as Johnson Consulting Group in my corner.  They should be your first call when looking to expand or retire.

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