The British Funeral Service - Elderly Client Adviser

Feature

posted 1 Jan 2000 in Volume 5 Issue 2

The British Funeral Service

In the Beginning

In the first half of the 20th century funeral directors, or undertakers as they were more commonly known, were to be found almost on every street corner in the larger towns and cities, undertaking duties which were ancillary to other business activities, such as joinering or building. In the late fifties a significant change occurred: chapels of rest were being introduced by more and more funeral firms and relatives no longer had to have the coffin brought into the home or kept at the hospital until the day of the funeral. By the sixties the multitude of urban undertakers was dwindling rapidly, due mainly to the proprietors reaching retirement age with no children to take their businesses and, therefore, no inclination to spend capital on providing chapels of rest. Many other firms continued their joinering work but abandoned the role of undertaker .

By the 1970's the first noticeable rumblings of takeovers were heard in the industry. Although funeral firms, like any other businesses, had merged and acquired one another over the years, it was not until the 70's that reasonably sized business groups emerged. By that time the long established co-operative funeral services had become the leading funeral directors in many towns and cities.

The Emergence of the Groups

As far as the groups were concerned, there were regional co-ops throughout the UK and two nationals - the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) and Co-operative Retail Services (CRS). Private groups were emerging like, for example, the Great Southern Group which operated crematoria, specialist exhumation services and funeral directing in London and the South East; the House of Fraser operating funerals from a Scottish subsidiary as well as their retail stores throughout the UK and Kenyons operating branches throughout London. This last firm carried out funerals for royalty and the aristocracy and also established Kenyon Emergency Services which have attended many of the world's disasters. The market leader was the Hodgson empire, which grew out of a single proprietor business in Birmingham by harnessing the takeover ethos of the 1980's.

Acquisition Overdrive

Hodgson raised the stakes and other groups, particularly the co-operatives, Great Southern and Kenyons subsequently went into acquisition overdrive. The early eighties saw Hodgsons float on the stock exchange, followed by Kenyons and then Great Southern. The House of Fraser had been acquired by the Al Fayed brothers who had no intention of becoming funeral directors so the funeral subsidiaries had to go. This portfolio of businesses was too great for any one group to take over so a deal was struck between Hodgson and the CWS whereby Hodgsons took most of the English businesses of Frasers and the Co-operative took the Scottish businesses, where it already had a strong Scottish presence. The final chapter in the Fraser deal was when the CWS had to divest itself of some of the Scottish branches to satisfy the Monopolies & Mergers Commission - through a sale to Hodgsons.

The industry continued in this expansive vein into the nineties with family businesses also acquiring neighbouring businesses or even businesses in other localities. Then the next bombshell occurred - Kenyons, 'the royal undertakers', which had been considered vulnerable to takeover after selling many shares to finance ongoing acquisitions, was acquired by the French giant Pompres Funebres Generals (PFG), a part nationalised, part Lyonnaise Water Company-owned nationwide funeral organisation. Shortly afterwards Hodgsons announced the sale of their group to the French and, after the initial name of PFG Hodgson Kenyon International Plc was abbreviated to PHK International, a new name for the company emerged, taken from the name of its Head Office in Sutton Coldfield - Plantsbrook Plc. This was the new non-co-operative giant of the UK funeral industry. Some British newspapers picked up the connection between the French water company and the owner of hundreds of UK funeral offices, particularly when Lyonnaise showed interest in one of our own privatised Water Companies - the ultimate vertical monopoly - foreigners owning our life source and our death source! As we entered the nineties, however, little did we realise that the Atlantic Ocean rather than the English Channel would play a key part in subsequent proceedings.

The Western Connection

In 1994 the World's largest funeral group, Service Corporation International (SCI), based in Houston and with significant funeral directing businesses in the US, Canada and Australia, courted and ultimately acquired the Great Southern Group. Both companies were strong in their respective markets with the fast growing pre-payment plans, Great Southern having developed the British market leader 'Chosen Heritage'. The British company's crematoria operations also attracted SCI who own and operate a high number of cemeteries and crematoria in America. The British funeral industry watched the courtship of Great Southern but totally failed to see that SCI were also set to acquire Plantsbrook within days of the Great Southern deal. The French owners of Plantsbrook then sold their French PFG operation to the Americans the following year. In 1997 the world's second largest funeral service company, Loewen, based in Vancouver arrived in Britain through the acquisition of a family owned group of businesses based in Hampshire. It quickly expanded by acquiring a similar sized group in East Anglia, along with isolated businesses elsewhere. However, both Loewen and SCI are now suffering financially in their home markets of the United States and Canada and a breakup of their respective empires cannot be ruled out.

Changing Trends

Funeral trends have not altered dramatically during the past thirty years although there has been a gradual decline in opulence, partly due to the economic climate during the recessionary years and partly to the pressures of modern day business which demand that people do not take the whole day off work just because there is a funeral to arrange and attend. Even the Dutch elm decease and high increases in costs for oak in the seventies played their part by allowing the advance of the mass-produced veneered chipboard coffin. Typically today's funeral will have one following limousine or none at all with family and friends meeting at the crematorium whereas in the late sixties it was not unusual to see a cortege of four, five or occasionally six following limousines. However certain funeral 'luxuries' are enjoying more popularity than ever before. A single firm provides more than 300 Victorian horse-drawn hearses every year and American style caskets are much in demand.

The Current Scene

The CWS and CRS still trade throughout the UK and are currently in merger talks. These two groups are the first and third largest funeral businesses in the UK and their union is expected to be completed during 2000. Other large societies operate regionally and smaller co-operatives enjoy a lion's share of their respective markets. All these societies trade, not only as co-operatives, but also as the numerous names that they have acquired over the years. However, despite all these stories of acquisitions, independent funeral directors still carry out about 51% of the funerals in Britain. If the general public like the thought of an independent family funeral director looking after them when they are bereaved, the independents are still out there, although it may not be that easy to find them.

The past twenty years have seen the emergence in this country of funeral planning - pre-paying and pre-arranging your own funeral which have been popular for some time in the United States. The attractions are that people have a say in how their own funerals should be conducted and can pay for the service at today's prices. British funeral directors have noticed the increase in funeral plan sales and realise that they have to now deal with future funerals as well as present deaths. Initially clients would contact funeral directors for details of plans but, in many cases nowadays, heavily promoted national schemes have attracted purchasers, with no contact being made with funeral directors. The largest selling plan is that trading under the Age Concern banner and operated by a company jointly established by the charity and SCI. Often it does not occur to purchasers who sign up to a national scheme rather than approaching the local funeral director, that when the time of the funeral comes, the local funeral director who has 'looked after' a particular family for generations, may well not be involved. The national planning companies contract funeral directors who may not be from the same area as the bereaved family. Also, in the majority of cases, local plans are cheaper than the national ones.

A Comprehensive Approach

Funeral businesses are now more comprehensive in their approach. In the fifties and sixties smaller firms did not own their own ceremonial vehicles as it made more sense to hire them from a carriagemaster when needed. Many funeral directors did not get involved with memorials, preferring to pass enquiries to the local monumental mason. A typical funeral director now owns his fleet and can provide a wide range of memorialisation: a one-stop shop. Carriagemasters and monumental masons have had to adapt to survive; the easiest way has been to offer a more comprehensive themselves - and become funeral directors.

The industry is now more education conscious with a number of different training programmes available for all staff. Even limousine drivers are taking advanced driving courses in some instances. Women take on a far greater role nowadays - arranging and conducting funerals in much larger numbers than thirty years ago. As far as quality is concerned, members of the public are largely protected by the redress facilities offered by the Funeral Ombudsman, although one of the three industry trade associations still does not participate in the scheme, preferring its own disciplinary process.

David Kaye

Editor of the Funeral Service Journal