Hillenbrand NYSE HI(Batesville) CEO comes down on new Company Purchased-YourFuneralGuy

In a presentation on a conference call Tuesday Hillenbrand CEO Kenneth Camp was critical of K-Tron management .K-Tron  is the  the plastics company purchased by the Coffin Giant. Camp said that K-tron had” limited lean experience.”

But Bateville (Hillenbrand Inc.) with all their lean cost cutting measures were not able to stop a signidicant revenue decline in 2009. Kamp and his lean Batesville Manufacturing Machine struck out in 09-Yest the Mighty Batesvllle did strike out.  Many times the wiser course is to keep one’s mouth shut,

In a slight understatement, Hillenbrand’s Camp allowed that K-Tron’s products are quite different from Batesville Caskets’, but said, “We are both manufacturing companies that share similar processes and core operational values.” In slides presented in a conference call to investors, he indicated that K-Tron had “limited lean experience,” referring to lean manufacturing, and predicted that “meaningful improvement opportunities exist through the application of lean business practices.” But he also highlighted K-Tron’s experienced management team, its positive financial standing, and its international footprint as strong points.

via www.plasticstoday.com

The bottom line of what has happened in this transation is that Bates ville has gone outside the Casket Sale to increase revenue.

Funeral Industry|Funeral News Blog by Your Funeral Guy

Batesville truck pic fron flickr under the creative commons license from

pecanpieguy’s photostream //
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NYSE:HI Hillenbrand(Batesville Casket) Non Funeral K-Tron Acquisition under investigation-YourFuneral Guy

A Hillenbrand- Batesville Casket-non funeral acquisition is under investigation

NYSE:HI “Hillenbrand” AKA Batesville Casket  acquisition of K-Tron is already under investigation. It seems that some think that the K-Tron shareholders were taken advantage of because there was no investigation of other buyers.

Hillenbrand Inc had declining revenue sales in 2009. In order to put an end to revenue  losses the World’s largest Casket Manufacturer has gone outside the casket sale to increase revenue.

Hillenbrand purchased the rights to Goria  Burial Vaults. near the end of 2009 and announced the K-Tron Purchase in early 2010. But as in any Corporate funeral business deal, there is shadiness in the grey areas. In this case an investigation was revealed within a  day after  the announced acquisition.

Snippet:

The law firm of Harwood Feffer LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty by the Board of Directors of K-Tron (“K-Tron”) (NYSE:KTII) arising out of the proposed acquisition of K-Tron by Hillenbrand, Inc. (“Hillenbrand”) (NYSE:HI).

On Monday, January 11, 2010, K-Tron announced it had agreed to be acquired by Hillenbrand. The transaction will have an aggregate purchase price of approximately $435 million…..

However, K-Tron may not have adequately shopped itself around before entering into this transaction and, pursuant to this proposed transaction, Hillenbrand may be underpaying for K-Tron, thus unlawfully harming K-Tron shareholders.via www.globenewswire.com

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This is an illustration as to why dealings with corporate funeral homes should be avoided.

Stewart Enterprises numbers nudge Funeral Industry Decline-YourFuneralguy

Declining Funeral Corporation Numbers are nudging a Funeral Industry Decline.

The third quarter numbers for Stewart Enterprises are nudging the Funeral Industry towards it’s disaster. Stewart Enterprises did not meet the street expectations in the third quarter 2009. They did show a small  3Q revenue profit  do to debt reduction and cost cutting. The problem is you cannot cut costs and retire debt forever.

Stewart Enterprises, Inc (STEI)is the second largest Funeral Corporation in the United States of America.  The competitor Service Corporation(SCI) International finds itself in  a worse position.

Total revenue at the company fell 9.7 percent to $117.8 million.
Revenue from the company’s cemetery segment dropped 16 percent, primarily due to a decrease in cemetery property sales (translation Cemetery Preneed).

Snippet from tradingmarkets.com

“Funeral revenue decreased $2.5 million, or 3.6 percent, to
$66.0 million.

The cremation rate for the Company’s same-store operations
was 41.8 percent for the third quarter of 2009 compared to
39.9 percent for the third quarter of 2008.

Cemetery revenue decreased $10.2 million to $51.7 million
for the third quarter of 2009.  This decrease is due primarily
to a $3.7 million, or 13.5 percent, decrease in cemetery
property sales.

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Batesville Casket Income Down Again-Your Funeral Guy

Batesville Casket Company in decline

The net income for the Batesville Casket Company is down in the third quarter of 2009. Hillenbrand Inc.’s (HI)Net Income is down 4.9%. Net revenues fell to $158.7 million from $165 million. But more significantly for the first 9 months of 2009 (Fiscal year)there is a huge loss.  In the First (3Qs {of (fiscal)2009} Revenues dropped to $496 million from $519.3 million.

The WSJ quoting Hillenbrand Inc.’s Chief Executive  Kenneth Camp.

“This recession has affected every part of the American economy, and for the first time, it’s also affected our industry,”He added that the results also pointed to consumers’ spending cutbacks affecting their funeral-purchase decisions.

Snippet From RTT:

Revenue came down to $496.0 million from $519.3 million in the same period (9 month) last year.

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NYSE: HI is headquartered in Batesville, Indiana