Funeral service marks fourth anniversary with fourth new site
1A funeral service established in 2016 has opened its fourth site, after expanding into Halifax, as part of a six-figure investment that has already created new jobs in the town.
Full Circle Funerals has transformed a former retail unit on the corner of Crossley Hill and Huddersfield Road, opposite Calderdale Royal Hospital, into a modern funeral planning centre, complete with private meeting areas, visiting rooms and office space.
The company launched in Guiseley in 2016. In 2019 Full Circle Funerals opened a second site in Bramley near Leeds and earlier this year it launched in Harrogate town centre.
The company has also pioneered a range of innovations, including being one of the first in the UK to offer an electric eco-hearse, which is now available in Halifax, to complement its traditional fleet of funeral vehicles.
More recently, Full Circle Funerals has been helping families create virtual funerals due to the pandemic, using video conferencing software, which can be shared online with friends and family, regardless of where they are in the world.
Nicola Smith and Peter Lowe have been appointed to lead the Halifax service, with support from David Billington who joined Full Circle Funerals in 2016.
Smith was born into a funeral business in Lancashire that spans four generations of her family and still operates successfully today.
She has spent time living in Canada, where she created funerals for a wide range of ethnic communities, before moving back to the UK in 2007 and working for two national funeral companies.
Lowe has held a long-term ambition to join the sector after previously working in engineering, before joining the police and then spending the last seven years as an insurance investigator.
He will now complete Full Circle Funerals’ in-house training programme to become a funeral director.
Company founder, Sarah Jones, said: “We’re really pleased to have launched in Halifax, in a popular and busy part of the town.
“In recent years, we have supported a number of families in the area to create and pre-plan meaningful funerals, and we were receiving increasing numbers of enquiries from the Calder Valley, which made it a natural location to expand into.
“It’s also a coup to attract someone with Nicola’s experience and there’s no doubt Peter’s compassion and attention to detail, that he brings from his previous roles, will be a valuable asset and pave the way for him to become a successful funeral director.
“We are looking forward to working with local ministers, celebrants, florists and other businesses in the Calder Valley to help people create modern or traditional funerals that are both profound and genuinely helpful for those involved.”
