Late last week we received this press release that indicates that Park Lawn Corporation acquired eight stand-alone funeral homes in locations spanning the greater Oklahoma City market.  It represents Park Lawn’s entrance into the state of Oklahoma.

The press release announced “Park Lawn Corporation is pleased to announce that, effective December 1^st, it acquired substantially all of the assets of Service Group of Oklahoma (SGOK), a group of businesses consisting of eight stand-alone funeral homes with locations spanning the greater Oklahoma City market.”

Jennifer W. Hay, CEO of Park Lawn made the following prepared comment in the press release about the transaction, “Entering Oklahoma marks an exciting milestone in our growth strategy. These eight locations have deep ties to the communities they serve, and we’re proud to support their continued tradition of excellence.  We are pleased to welcome Chad Vice, John Davenport and the entire SGOK team to Park Lawn.  Their passion, expertise and commitment to service make them an outstanding addition to our organization.”

You can access the Park Lawn Corporation website here.  

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  Acquiring eight established funeral homes around one major city in the United States will certainly add to the numbers of Park Lawn Corporation.  From my point of view, and this is only an anecdotal observation, it seems to me that the large national acquisition and operating companies have almost completely moved on from acquisitions in what I would call Regional Centers and are very much concentrating on what I would term mid-major and major cities almost exclusively.

That strategy makes sense. . . . . the numbers of deaths and the economies of scale make those communities very attractive to the large scale companies that can raise the combination of capital and secure the debt that it takes to acquire them.  It also allows for future “bolt-on” acquisitions in the future that can make those markets even more profitable for the operators.

If that is the strategy it leaves a lot of great communities and their funeral homes, probably outside of America’s largest 50 markets, available for acquisition by the next tier of consolidators — those that compete in a more regional sphere.  That’s good news for those operators.

While the brand names of the eight funeral homes acquired were not listed in the Park Lawn press release, here are the websites of those funeral homes that we believe may be included in the acquisition.

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This article from the Tri-City Herald of Washington state lets us know that what will now be the largest funeral home operator in the Tri-Cities, Einan Funeral Homes, has grown by adding Hillcrest Funerals and Cremation to their group of funeral homes and cemeteries.

Those funeral homes are located in Kennewick and Pasco, Washington, and the article also lets the readers know that Hillcrest’s cremation company, EZ Cremate, was also part of the transaction.

In addition, the article states, “Einan’s parent company, Richland Cemetery Association, also bought Columbia River Cemetery, now named Columbia River Gardens Cemetery”.  Finally, according to the article,  the merged businesses employ 66 and now serve up to 1,000 families each year. . . “

The linked article also says this about Einan’s, “Einan’s is a for-profit, community-owned business governed by a board of directors and has been in business for more than 60 years.  Before the Hillcrest acquisition, it operated a single, full-service funeral home in Richland, as well as Compassionate Cremation Society and Coda Alternative Cremation and Funeral, an alternative funeral home in Kennewick”.

Hillcrest Funerals and Cremation was established in 2005 and was built into three funeral homes and a cemetery.  According to one of the former owners, Adrianna Titus, “We’re glad to have the local funeral home take on the Hillcrest legacy“.

Here is a website from one of the Einan properties.

The Tri-Cities of Washington state ––  According to this Wikipedia article, the Washington state Tri-Cities include Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland.  The cities come together at the confluence of the Snake, Yakima, and Columbia Rivers in the Columbia basin of Eastern Washington.

The three cities have a combined population of over 220,000 and the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is estimated to be over 300,000 people.

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