re: Batesville Casket and Funeral Products Manufacture during Covid

Maybe they used mass graves behind the nursing homes in NY, Ca and Michigan.

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Cremation is a growing trend.

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Cremation has been trending more greatly for at least the last 20 years, though. There is no reason honestly to expect that the RATE at which people chose cremation suddenly increased in 2020 in any kind of response to the COVID crisis. That is to say, the rate at which people have been choosing cremation is already baked into the 2017-2019 numbers. It would strain credulity to propose that a modest uptick in cremation services still only rendered this kind of business performance in a fiscal year with an 18% increase in business opportunity.

The real number of deaths for 2020 obviously did not exceed any predictable rate of occurrence according to this market-based analysis. The numbers of deaths attributed to causes other than COVID 19 also bear this out (seasonal flu being most notable).

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Mickey Goldmill

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You got me thinking, well... if Batesville didn't take the business, then the other really large manufacturer, Matthews International Corporation, did, so let's take a look at their "Memorialization" business (that includes everything you need for a funeral, whether "in the ground" or "in a furnace").

2020 Financial Report

Seems like they didn't cash in on that extra half a million new deaths in 2020, either. Interesting, since both control almost a 90% market share combined.

2018 - $631,392,000 in revenue
2019 - $636,892,000 in revenue
2020 - $656,035,000 in revenue (+$21 million, or +3.27%)

So, if we add the $4 million from Batesville and the $21 million from Matthews, we have a +$25 million increase in the market. Since they represent about 90% of the market between the two of them, I'll divide by 9 then multiply by 10. That's a $27.7 million dollar uptick in their market for 522,965 more deaths.

That means, each funeral for those additional deaths cost only........

$52.97

Those guys must have really been dropping their drawers to take one for the team. Giving away funerals! My, my, my!

Or maybe they just didn't have the market demand that you would expect from a half-million people dying unexpectedly.

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So why did Batesville only add year-over-year growth of revenue of 0.73% when the number of deaths increased by 18.44% and they are the leading manufacturer of coffins in the US? 

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the people that "died" from Covid are the same people that voted for Biden. they were already dead and buried so they didn't need another casket.

That's some good work finding that. They think no one will look I guess.

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Or maybe they just didn't have the market demand that you would expect from a half-million people dying unexpectedly.

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With an 18% increase in product requirements, you would think there would be a plant expansion involved. Due to worker shortages, you would also expect to see some heavy investment in more automated production equipment and robotics too.

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I'm not sure I agree. If you'll recall, in-person funerals were famously vastly restricted (except for St. Floyd, of course). I can easily see families opting for cremation.

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Even at that... Batesville Casket does a pretty hefty creamation Casket and urn business.. Creamation increase, and the revenue that goes with it, would hit their bottom line as well....

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Everything you questioned is addressed in my entire bolded section of my post (which you chose not to include). It was stated as fact on here that their prices never go down. Well that was wrong. Prices went down 1% and more people are opting for cremations.

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Higher volume was driven by an increase in burial casket sales primarily due to estimated higher deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic

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Well this is saying they sold more due to estimated higher deaths. Not that there were higher deaths. And a decrease of price wouldn’t necessarily mean anything if you are selling more. That decrease still has a break even point.

And the answer is - Chinese competition. Yeah, the Chinese will take care of your death care needs.