Wilbert Funeral Services CEO Resigns

Last Friday, October 1, 2010, Paul Cooper, Chairman of the Wilbert Funeral Services Inc.(WFSI) board, accepted the resignation of WFSI President and CEO Tony Colson. Tony has elected to leave Wilbert and take a position as President and CEO for a new casket company that is based in Detroit called Genesis Casket Company, which is [...]

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Has Batesville Been Lying About Casket Protection?

The economic state of our country is forcing many companies to diversify themselves into new products as well as new industries, and funeral industry companies have not been excluded from this diversification. Lets look at Batesville Casket company. In the last 12 months they have purchase a burial vault company, a funeral home website company, [...]

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Exclusive: First Look at Batesville’s Burial Vault Graveside Set Up

Last December we reported that Batesville Casket Company (parent company Hillenbrand) bought the Goria Burial Vault company. We also reported in July that Batesville ran job ads on CareerBuilder.com and in local Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky newspapers looking for Diver/Burial Vault Sales Representative, confirming speculation that Batesville was planning to service their own burial [...]

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Big 3 Casket Companies Being Sued, Creating a Monopoly?

This week a federal judge in Houston, Texas will determine whether the three biggest casket companies (Batesville, Aurora, and Matthews) are shirking FTC rules and creating a monopoly in the deathcare market according to recent audio from marketplace.publicradio.org. Bill Radke: Until the 1980s, a funeral home was the only place you could buy a casket. [...]

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Batesville Casket Raises Patent Infringement Claims

The biggest casket manufacturer in the country is hoping an investigation will close the lid on what it alleges is patent infringement by a Mexican importer. The United States International Trade Commission in Washington is investigating whether a company called Ataudes Aguilares of Guadalajara, Mexico, violated trade laws by importing knockoffs of casket designs patented [...]

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Batesville Getting Serious About Burial Vaults

It was announced a few months ago that Batesville purchased the intellectual properties of the burial vault portion of the Goria Corporation. It is obvious that Batesville is looking to other outlets to recoup some of the profit they are losing from dwindling casket sales. Not much has been said or heard from Batesville regarding their involvement [...]

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Hillenbrand (Batesville) Going After Mexican Knockoff Casket Maker

Hillenbrand Inc.’s Batesville unit, the largest U.S. maker of coffins, filed a U.S. trade complaint to stop imports of what it deems are knockoff caskets from Mexico. The complaint, filed yesterday with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, said Ataudes Aguilares of Guadalajara, Mexico, is bringing caskets into the U.S. that infringe patents related [...]

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Does Batesville Want To Be A Casket Company or Tech Company?

Many people don’t know this but Batesville Casket Company is the largest provider of funeral home websites. Yep, they are larger than Frazer Consultants, FuneralNet, and even FuneralOne. A few years ago Batesville purchased WebFH, a company that had built websites for over 3,000 funeral homes. On Wednesday Batesville added to the number of funeral home websites they [...]

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The Crowded Casket, More Than Dead Being Buried In Casket

We CAN take it with us? Since the beginning of burials, man has often gone to the grave with company. These days, funeral directors grant most requests: a shotgun … a case of beer … a bottle of Jack Daniels … some favorite cigars … golf clubs, usually putters … a clarinet … a tool [...]

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Insider Stock Buying at Hillenbrand and SCI

Knowing what company executives and board members are doing regarding the purchase of company stock can be a great indicator of the company’s prospects and when you should buy the companies stock. One “investor tip” says this: Obviously, corporate executives have a big advantage over the average investor. They’re often the first to find out [...]

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