Dignity PLC (LON:DTY), the funeral operator, said that the coronavirus crisis is leading to lower levels of income per funeral than last year.
Temporary changes because of the pandemic, such as the withdrawal of funeral limousines and the unavailability of church services, had a major impact on the group’s average income per funeral in April.
Because of Covid-19, around 60% of customers choosing a simple funeral last month compared to a full service funeral compared to 20% seen in the first three months of the year, while average income from full service funerals has reduced to approximately £3,150 in April from £3,521 in the first quarter.
Dignity's funeral parlours carried out 20,000 funerals in the first quarter, representing a market share of 12.2% compared to 12% this time last year.
The combined impact overall weighted average income per funeral was £2,200 in April compared to £2,648 achieved in the first quarter, before ancillary underlying income, which reflects the continued roll out of new funeral options, trials of different lower-priced propositions and the early impact of coronavirus.
Average income per funeral therefore was £2,823 in the first quarter of 2020 versus £2,904 a year ago and £2,930 for the whole of last year.
With the number of deaths in the first quarter up 1% to 161,000, revenue in the first quarter rose 2% to £83.1mln, while underlying operating profit fell 10.5% to £19.4mln.
Dignity noted that after a 1% increase in the absolute number of deaths in the first quarter, there have been more incremental deaths reported, including in excess of 20,000 deaths in one week, the highest since the beginning of 2000.
“The number of possible incremental deaths as a result of COVID-19 is a matter of substantial speculation,” Dignity said.
“Should 2020 witness a large number of incremental deaths, beyond the 600,000 originally anticipated by the Office for National Statistics, then it is possible that 2021 and 2022 could experience a lower number of deaths than in 2019.”