Funeral Partners acquires its first business in Wales

Funeral Partners has announced the acquisition of Arthur Cambrey Funeral Directors in Llanelli, Wales, which marks the first Welsh business to join the operator of funeral services. 

The Welsh company has been running for more than 70 years and is set in more than an acre of beautiful grounds. 

Arthur Cambrey started his career by running a car hire business. He then founded his funeral company in 1950, having initially provided vehicles for local undertakers. He continued working to serve local families, until the day before his death in 2012.

Cambrey’s daughter, Alison, began working for the business in the 1980s as an accountant. She then went on to follow in her father’s footsteps by arranging and conducting funerals.

Her two daughters now have successful careers, meaning there is no natural successor in the family, and with Alison due to become a grandmother not once but twice early next year, she has decided now is the right time to seek an acquisition partner.

However, she will remain an integral part of the team as business principal and states she hopes working with Funeral Partners will “safeguard” her father’s legacy. 

Alison Cambrey said: “From my very first meeting, they made me comfortable and I feel like Funeral Partners are here to support me. Funeral Partners can help me with the regulations, with the HR and the back of house, while I can do what I love, and what I am good at, which is helping people arrange funerals for their loved ones.

“I think they know they have a great business here because of the work that has gone into building it up.”

Sam Kershaw, chief executive of Funeral Partners, added: “I’m very excited about branching out into Wales, and we couldn’t have asked for a better business to work with than Arthur Cambrey Funeral Directors.

“They have an enviable reputation, a dedicated team and a wonderful funeral home set in beautiful grounds, which is a brilliant combination.”