Dignity Share Discussion Threads

[hopeful holder] 27/6/2018 14:09

Having only just recently (5 weeks) I've had to use the services of a funeral director.We asked some friends who had (2 years ago) also lost a loved one who they had used to see about the service. Price never came Into the equation for us. We went with a local company as we felt they were less corporate and cod look after us better at that time.I'm sure that if we spoken to a decent enough person at a National company, the service may have been just the same.We did not have any funeral plans and to be honest, we did not compare prices between companies. We wanted to give a decent send off.So the CMA Investigating the industry is a good thing to protect families at a time we are most vulnerable.So the personal touch was our focus not price.

[stardog2] 27/6/2018 12:34

Jamie sounds suspiciously like James Dunn boss of funeralbooker to me. Which is fine, nothing wrong with getting balanced viewpoints.

[countless] 27/6/2018 12:13

Had to use the Co-Op recently and could not have asked for a better service. Jamie48 has an agenda that sticks out a mile.

[stardog2] 26/6/2018 18:54

With Dignity you get a consistent quality experience. With the small independents there are plenty of quality, personable operators as you describe but there are also plenty of unreliable poor operations and some rogues.

[jamie48] 26/6/2018 18:33

Stardog2 - for quality, avoid big chains like Dignity or the Co-op! Choose a small independent where the person arranging the funeral will always be available. They will get to know you and your family thoroughly.

With the big chains, you only get a call centre after 5pm and at the weekends; the funeral 'conductor' who shows up on the funeral day will probably be someone you've not met before!

The big chains also book funerals to suit their own diary and available resources (manpower, transport, etc) rather than when you want it to be. They lie to you by saying certain crematorium times/dates are not available when the truth is they are already booked up with another funeral at that time.

You need to get out of the mindset that the most expensive funeral home is the best. In the funeral industry, the most expensive funeral homes are impersonal, soulless and target-driven.

[stardog2] 26/6/2018 17:28

For the majority of us that have had to make funeral arrangements it's quality rather than getting the cheapest deal as well as using our familiar local provider that is most important. It's not like buying the cheapest insurance deal on confused.com its about doing justice to our loved ones. At the end of the day Dignity provides a quality, reliable service across the country.Jamie from funeralbooker is missing the point - for most of us we are not hunting for the cheapest deal we just want the best service.

[jamie48] 26/6/2018 14:32

Jacks13 - if I am a mouthpiece for anyone it is for the shocked, newly bereaved people who are too dazed and overwhelmed to question prices.

thamestrader - Dignity are consistently more expensive and people use them because they don't know just how much more expensive they are.

It might be a company's duty to maximise returns, but their prices constitute sheer greed. You are right - the difference is that it is at the expense of the vulnerable.

A price comparison site might sort out the current lack of transparency, as well as widespread education of the public that it is OK to compare prices for a funeral and it does not mean that they will be getting any less a service by paying £1,500.00 less for the funeral (quite the opposite, they will speak to a funeral director if they telephone an independent funeral director in the evening or weekend, not a call centre that they get with Dignity or the Co-op).

Clear, transparent pricing on all funeral directors' website would also help. (Not just a 'prices from...' that bears no relation to the final bill).

Hopefully, the CMA investigation will raise people's awareness about how funerals do not have to be expensive to be of the best quality.

If any of you financial wizards on this site have some spare money for investment - open a crematorium where Dignity currently has a monopoly and charge a reasonable price. All of the local funeral homes (bar the Dignity owned ones) would support you.

[thamestrader] 26/6/2018 11:18

If Dignity were consistently more expensive, people would never use them. It's not like a utility where there is the 'inertia' factor, although once you start down the road with a given supplier, the bereaved may not have the energy to try other places (pricing is necessarily too complex to be covered by just a phone call).

It is a company's duty to maximise returns for shareholders, by (amongst other things) increasing market share, even to the point of monopolising a local area, and getting 'pricing power'.

What makes the difference here is that doing these things may be at the expense of folks who are at a very low ebb and potentially highly vulnerable. It is the governments job to ensure there is a free market where this is in the interests of the greater good.

I have organised a few (too many!) funerals of late, and all were with Dignity affiliated companies. They performed admirably, and their costs were clear from the start.

That is not to say I couldn't have paid less elsewhere, and having got Dignity's detailed quote I could easily have said 'thanks, I'll be in touch', and tried other places. Under the circumstances, one might not be minded to do this (I wasn't), but short of having an online auction site where you input your wishes and providers bid for your business, I'm not sure how it could be easier. (Now there's an idea!)

[jacks13] 26/6/2018 09:55

You're a mouthpiece jamie. Answer the question, who are you representing?

[hussyo] 25/6/2018 17:53

jacks13 - I wouldn't worry about it... Peel Hunt has said the Treasury investigation will benefit DTY, which was easy enough to see from the brief. The second investigation, well, who knows? Maybe it will knock EPS; on the other hand, maybe it won't. It's a year off. What will set the tone for the stock moving forward is the August 1st update. Set that date in your diary!

[jacks13] 25/6/2018 09:59

jamie: So you've opened an advfn account on Thursday, since when you've posted the above three posts. Employed by funeralbooker?

[hussyo] 23/6/2018 19:04

jamie - Dignity will benefit from the Treasury's investigation as they have provisions to repay all deposits should they need to. It is the smaller operations who have the most to fear from that particular aspect of what's going on in the funeral industry. Dignity has in fact, and it's a well-known fact, been calling for tighter regulation. The real fear centres around any impact to their crematorium business, which is hugely lucrative, of a possible crackdown. However, I wouldn't bank on any regulation, if there is any, breaking them. It didn't happen with tobacco, gambling, doorstep lending, and it will certainly not happen here. Governments are not in the business of crippling companies or entire sectors. If you are an ethical investor then I'd wait for the reports, due in about a year, before deciding if DTY deserves your ire. I would also suggest you deepen your reading and not simply look at the titbits on offer Google page 1.

[jamie48] 23/6/2018 10:53

Hatfullofsky - I'm not sure why you are saying that I am ill informed, when the facts in my post were 100% true. There are two investigations (check) and Dignity is the main guilty party in both (Google 'The Reaper calls for Dignity'). Sorry if you are set to lose a shedload of money, but that is where investing in shares that exploit the bereaved gets you.

[hatfullofsky] 23/6/2018 08:37

Thank you for your comments Jamie, you are clearly ill informed or more than likely a paid basher or holding a short position. Either way your comments are baseless and hold zero value and as so will be ignored as will you.

[jamie48] 22/6/2018 14:30

There are two investigations and Dignity are nervous about both. The Competition and Markets Authority is looking into overpricing by both funeral homes and crematoriums (Dignity are the worst offenders in both) and the Treasury is looking into funeral plans (Dignity hides behind Age UK and sells their overpriced plans this way). My advice is to sell as Dignity will not be able to get away with their brutal overpricing and their monopolies on crematoriums for much longer.

[hussyo] 21/6/2018 11:03

Sell in May and stay away has never felt like more of a truism.

[thamestrader] 19/6/2018 17:03

Apparently fewer people die during trade wars.

[hussyo] 19/6/2018 15:10

Down 2.5% on 69k traded. Make of that what you will.

[hatfullofsky] 13/6/2018 17:14

Shard, macro news does not interest me when trying to understand short term price fluctuations. Hussyo is right this is down to low volumes. Some nice buys at the end could see this bounce by the end of the week.

[shard of glass] 12/6/2018 12:50

I've taken a position in Dignity on my portfolio this morning as I see it that it is they that have been campaigning for any enquiry and are happy to share what information they have already collated. Given this I think it has already fallen too far even before today and I also noted a recent Director buy at 1090p.

In terms of news there is plenty out there.

Office of National Statistics data on death rates is showing deaths for this quarter so far around 3% up on the same period last year and in the quieter summer part of the year as well. That also follows on from a good first quarter with the death rate some 7% higher.



Additionally virtually every day you are seeing London in the news headlines for knife crime and with the death rate in London overtaking New York. The associated murder and the death rate in the capital seems at an all time high and these things all factor in and contribute. Just google search London and knife crime.

If things continue as they are presently then on the 1st August there may be potential for a significant boost to the share price for on that date you should get the Interim / 6 monthly results to the 29th June reflecting this and also the result of the ongoing pricing review.

all imvho, dyor etc

[hussyo] 12/6/2018 11:53

hatfullofsky volume is very thin, which can skew price dramatically.

[hatfullofsky] 12/6/2018 10:11

Nasty pull back, any new news out there ?

[castleford tiger] 09/6/2018 08:58

The big problem I think is that growth is being bought.
LFL are going backwards without them.
They cant stop buying because the independents are hurting them.

In my town out of 8 they own 6 so there is a cannibal effect.

I would look to close rather than buy and improve the ratios at each site.

It worries me that the debt pile is linked to EBITDA.
This could unwind fast if they missed targets.

Tiger