Funeral provider sees revenue fall as UK deaths decrease

Dignity the funeral services director, has seen its revenue fall as deaths have fallen across the UK.

Underlying revenue in the first quarter decreased by 22% to £73.9m (2021: £94.7m) and underlying operating profit fell by 67% to £9m (2021: £27.1m)

The number of deaths decreased by around 19% to 166,000 from 204,000 compared to last year as a result of COVID-19. The first quarter of 2022 has seen UK deaths being slightly below the five year average (excluding 2020 and 2021).

A new pricing strategy was reduced in September and the firm says this is why there is a decline in its underlying revenue.

Last year, Dignity’s chairman Clive Whiley was ousted by an activist investor in a move that has saw three other directors resign.

The Sutton Coldfield-based 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.

Following the appointment of Gary Cannon, Dignity embarked on a restructure.

Gary Channon, Chief Executive of Dignity, commented:
“Whilst the impact of the pandemic has made year-on-year comparisons difficult, the early signs of our new strategy are coming through.

“Increased competitiveness is showing up in across-the-board growth in market share at the cost of average revenue per funeral. The combined effect of the drop in the death rate following the pandemic during a time of strategic change for the Group is what we were protecting against when we sought and agreed the deal with our bondholders.

“That gives us the ability to pursue the right long-term strategy whatever happens to the death rate this year. It also gives us the time to agree a more long-term solution for the capital structure which we are currently working on”.

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