Restructuring continues at funeral services provider as profits fall

Dignity, the funeral services director, has seen revenue underlying profits fall for its financial year to the end of 2021.

Turnover dipped slightly by 1% to £312m, while profits slipped by 12% to £26.8m.

The results came after a year when Sutton Coldfield-based Dignity implemented a new strategy after the departure of chairman Clive Whiley in a boardroom coup last April.

The company’s biggest investor Phoenix UK Fund had called a vote on his leadership and were backed by 55% of shareholders in their bid to remove Whiley. The move brought forward Gary Channon as executive director.

He said: “2021 was a year of great change at Dignity as we set out and started implementing the new strategy which at its core promotes a culture focused on serving families and communities in all their end-of-life needs. There isn’t a part of Dignity that hasn’t been affected by the transformation so far as we inverted the whole organisation, empowered those serving clients and organised ourselves in a more collaborative structure.

“I would like to call out the hard work, dedication and commitment of all our colleagues who continued to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic whilst coping with the rapid pace of organisational change that Dignity has gone through.

“Although there is still much work to do to complete the restructuring, we know what we need to do.”