Aurora Casket Company Goes Outside The Casket Sale For the Sale|YourFuneralGuy

Funeral Industry Decline:Casket Companies going outside the casket sale for the sale.

Many large “Casket” companies in the Funeral Industry are going outside the “Casket Sale”  for the sale. Hillenbrand Inc the parent of Batesville Casket Company is the primary example well written about here.   This is even true of the privately held companies Like Aurora Casket Company- who is making  extra money through the sale of urns and support services.

If one does not make adjustments when your industry is dying, your business will die too. There is one problem with this thinking. Not everyone in the biz can sell urns, webcasting,  and consulting, and support services. All cannot profit from the same strategy no matter what the hype or who gives it.

First it was the rise in cremations. Now Bill Backman III and his clients at Aurora Casket Co. Inc. are competing with mass retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and even Amazon.com for casket sales.

You would think trends like these would be difficult to deal with for the nation’s largest, privately held casket manufacturer, but it’s all about how you approach it.

Backman has embraced the climb in cremations and spun the big-box competition to its advantage by not only supplying a product but spotlighting the additional support services it and its clients offer.

via www.sbnonline.com

Funeral Industry|Funeral blog by R. Brian Burkhardt Your Funeral Guy

Disclaimer:Your Funeral Guy has no affiliation or fiduciary relationship relationship Aurora Casket Company. He does not recommend use of this company in Funeral Arrangements. He does not “NOT” recommend the use  of Aurora Casket Company. Funeral arrangements are a personal and important decision.

Hillenbrand Inc(Batesville) completes non Funeral Industry Deal|Your Funeral Guy

Hillenbrand, Inc- Batesville Casket is showing the world a traditional funeral industry decline with the K-Tron Purchase

Hillenbrand, Inc has finished  delivering a  nail in the Funeral Industry’s  Coffin  finalizing an almost half a billion dollar purchase of the Non Funeral Company K-Tron. The deal was finalized for $435 Million US Dollars.

For the Largest Casket Company in America This is an admission of Funeral Industry Decline. Hillenbrand Inc is not just going outside the Casket Sale for revenue  But outside the Funeral  and Death Care Industry.

This is an example of the depth of the recession or if you like the jobless recovery the US Economy is experiencing.

This is an example of the extreme a  traditional funeral industry giant(NYSE:HI) will go to  deal with the rise of cremation and the traditional funeral industry decline.

“Casket maker Hillenbrand Inc. said Thursday it has completed the acquisition of manufacturer K-Tron International Inc. for about $435 million.

K-Tron will become a unit of the Batesville, Ind., company. K-Tron shareholders received about $150 per share in cash for their common stock in the deal, which was announced in January.

Hillenbrand said the expected purchase price will total about $379 million, when adjusted for K-Tron debt and cash on hand as of Thursday.

K-Tron, which is based in Pitman, N.J., makes industrial feeders and pneumatic conveyers. Hillenbrand owns the Batesville Casket Co. and makes cremation products but is seeking to diversify its portfolio.

Hillenbrand used cash on hand and debt financing to fund the deal. The company said the acquisition will start adding to Hillenbrand’s earnings per share this year.”via www.pddnet.com

Funeral industry|Funeral News|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Disclaimer:Your Funeral Guy has no affiliation or fiduciary relationship relationship Batesville Casket Company or Hillenbrand Inc. He does not recommend use of this company in Funeral Arrangements. He does not “NOT” recommend the use  of  Batesville Casket Company or Hillenbrand Inc. Funeral arrangements are a personal and important decision.

Organ donation, Cremation Company sent Body Parts to Medical Waste Facility!-yourfuneralguy

Body Parts Were sent to a Medical waste Company, not cremated as agreed.

Incredibly a organ donation company sent body parts illegally from New Mexico to a waste disposal facility in Kansas City. The  owner of Organ Donation Company Bio Care was recently arrested on Felony charges. Cremations were not performed as agreed. This is cremation fraud.

Apr 03, 2010 (Albuquerque Journal – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) –

Investigators are exploring a theory that Paul Montano shipped human remains to a Kansas medical waste disposal company as a way of cutting business costs, police said Friday.

With the cost of cremating a body ranging from $600 to $1,800, Montano and his firm, Bio Care Inc., could have cut costs by sending some of the remains to Stericycle Inc., a medical waste disposal firm, said APD spokeswoman Nadine Hamby.

“He could have saved money by cremating only some of the bodies,” Hamby said. “He had to pay to cremate the bodies, so that could have been a motive.”

Police arrested Montano, 31, on three counts of felony fraud Wednesday after human remains, including seven heads and torsos, turned up at the Stericycle plant in Kansas City.

via www.tradingmarkets.com

Click Here to view a Video on this Scandal

Funeral Industry|Funeral News| Funeral blog by R. Brian Burkhardt|Your Funeral Guy

Sen. Harry Reid get’s involved in Funeral Protest Case|YourFuneralGuy

Democratic leadership in the United States Senate is getting involved in the chilling Funeral Case of the Westboro Baptist church, that involves funeral protesters and Free Speech.

The US Senate is weighing in On the Funeral Protester case

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressed dismay over a court’s decision to overturn a ruling in favor of a fallen solider whose funeral was disrupted by a radical church group.

Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq in 2006. But his funeral in Maryland was interrupted with protests and signs by a group from the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that objects to members of the military because they protect a country that tolerates homosexuality.

via thehill.com

Reid has promised investigation into the matter and is urging the US Supreme Court to rule in favor of the of the Marine’s Family and not the Funeral Protesters.

The protesting Church is known for their anti gay slogans and their anti military, anti America protests.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News|Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy