The Co-operative Funeralcare’s trading profit last year (2010) was £46,000,000, achieved from 100,333 funerals. They performed 4000 more funerals than in 2009, and profits are up £7.7 million.
£9.5m was invested in vehicles and £11.1m in funeral homes.
Bond sales were up 29 per cent on 2009.
Funeral Excellence Scores, calculated from the consumer survey below, stand at 91.5, which is 0.5 higher than the target score.
1. Did you receive all the information you needed at the time of the arrangement?
2. Did you feel that we had fully explained to you what would happen on the day of the funeral?
3. Did we contact you to confirm the arrangements before the day of the funeral?
4. How would you rate our service… At the time of the arrangement?
5. How would you rate our service… On the day of the funeral?
6. Would you use our services again?
Funeral numbers for this year aren’t as good as they might. They are 435 down on last year and 1060 fewer than budgeted for. Week 14 has been better, though. Numbers are 324 better than last year, though 160 fewer than budgeted for.
Pre-paid funeral plan sales are healthy. 8919 have been sold so far this year, 2287 more than budgeted for and 2318 more than last year.
Source: weekly bulletin sent to all Co-op branches, 15.04.11.
I am innumerate. Do these numbers say anything to you?
It tells me that on average, they make £458 profit per funeral. That’s not as much as you would think. What these figures say to me is that Funeralcare rely on huge volumes of funerals. If they lose 10% of their volume, they are toast.
an interesting post ‘Norfolk Boi’ – well ‘toast’ indeed – that really would be something worth celebrating – up the independents
anyhow, I’ve seen a great deal of f’care invoices over the years and based on their different charges + the fact that they have their own coffin factory and I’m assuming that they should be able to negotiate generous deals with their vehicle purchases (and the inevitable ‘economies of scale issue) – that’s a very disappointing return – we’re not told whether it’s a pre-tax or post-tax profit, however
what it does again emphasise to me, is that this organisation is chock full of unnecessary layers of middle management and admin staff – all of whom would be unemployable at most decent well run independents – so rather than axe this lot, the punter is having to pay for them, plus the fact that the punter always has to pay a premium with f’care when you factor in the costs of their constant programme of opening new shops in all and sundry places just to maintain their ‘market share’ and let’s not forget the incredibly expensive advertising campaigns that they’ve bought into during the past couple of years – in short they’re not really going anywhere at all (that’s a relief…)
“How did we do in disposing of your dead relative’s remains with the minimum of fuss?”
“Oh, dear Fcare, you did brilliantly, we hardly felt a thing.”
Not what I’d want. But then I only use a supermarket – “Thanks, Tesco, we didn’t taste our dinner at all” – when there’s literally no alternative.
Of course there are lots of alternatives when it comes to a funeral, except that you can’t think straight so you go to the shop you recognize. It’s no use wating till you’re hungry before you go food shopping or you’ll buy the first crap that you see. But tell that to a hungry man.
There are plenty of alternatives, depending on how you think and where you live and how big your imagination is. The reason people keep buying crap is that they don’t look at what they’re buying, or think about why they are buying it.
Won’t it be lovely when we re-accommodate nutrition into our diet.