Batesville Revenue points to Funeral industry Decline-YourFuneralGuy

Batesville Casket Had a 17.1% decline in net income, a bad sign for the funeral business.

The largest casket maker in the United States has posted a 17.1% decline in net income in their 2nd Quarter of 2009. This is another indication of  more decline in the funeral business. (Numbers here do not include litigation costs and spin off adjustments)

Hillenbrand Inc- Batesville Casket Co.

“Kenneth Camp, president and chief executive officer of Hillenbrand, Inc said, “The funeral services industry has experienced a decline in burials that is largely consistent with a mild influenza and pneumonia season, combined with an increase in cremations that may be more pronounced in the current economic environment. There also has been more intense competition in both the casket and cremation businesses.-(rttnews.com)

Excluding costs, net income was $28.6 million, down 17.1% from $34.5 million in the prior yearquarter.-(rttnews.com)

Batesville casket  did post a profit due to the reduction of operations-but operations cannot be reduced forever. A 17.1 decline in net income paints a steep decline in the casket end of the US  funeral industry. Not only was  there more cremation and  less burial , there was a significant  threat to the US funeral industry in the rise of high quality Chinese Casket imports.

That is  part of the rise in more intense competition.

Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.

Source(rttnews.com)

post updated at 12:54 Am on May13th 2009 due to inaccurate info fron 1st source.( revenue decline was 10.8% not 22%)