Funeral services provider Dignity said on Monday that solid trading continued into the third quarter, with the death rate 10% higher year-on-year but 3% lower year-to-date.
Dignity said the elevated death rate was “the main driver” of an increase in underlying profitability within funerals, which reported an increase of £2.0m for the third quarter against the prior year.
The London-listed firm cautioned that it had continued to show a decline in market share in both funerals and crematoria and warned that its average revenue per funeral had fallen.
Dignity stated that the fourth quarter was “important” but “hard to predict”. Given that uncertainty, it opted to refrain from giving guidance.
Dignity also highlighted that its regional restructuring, in which it was organising its businesses into smaller groups to devolve autonomy and the opportunity for decision making and local developments, remained on track.
Chief executive Gary Channon said: “There is a huge amount of positive change going on at Dignity as we position ourselves to be a growing and thriving business that serves families for their end-of-life needs.
“I am really pleased with the progress so far and the general enthusiasm with which this is being tackled internally. We will have a lot more to say at the year-end and look forward to sharing an update then.”
As of 1000 BST, Dignity shares were down 2.36% at 702.0p.
