Dignity lowers funeral prices; warns on 2018 profits
Dignity, the UK’s only listed provider of funeral related services, has confirmed that its results for the period ended 29 December 2017 will be in line with market expectations.
The board has said that it believes its results for the period ending 28 December 2018 will be substantially below the market’s current expectations.
Due to this, the company has taken “decisive action on its funeral pricing strategy” to protect its market share and “reposition” itself for future growth.
Effective immediately, the price of the group’s simple funeral will be reduced by roughly 25 per cent and the price of a traditional funeral will be frozen in the majority of the group’s locations.
The company said: “The pace of change and the level of competition in the funeral sector is accelerating and we are responding to changing customer demand as some bereaved families search for alternative and lower cost funerals. This is evidenced by the success of our low cost, online direct cremation service Simplicity Cremations, launched in November 2016.
“As well as using our extensive national network of funeral homes, we will continue to improve how we help customers online whether on their mobile, tablet or computer. We will use these capabilities to create a powerful presence in both our traditional premium funeral services and other emerging and lower cost services.”
Dignity’s preliminary market results will be published on 14 March 2018.
