Dignity’s financials are suffering because not enough people are dying
A lowered death rate would give most people a reason to celebrate but it’s not great news for one listed company.
The figures
Funeral-related services provider Dignity today reported its profits before tax for the 26 weeks to 24 June had fallen to £41.5m, down 7.8 per cent from £45m the year before. Underlying profits before tax also dipped to £42.4m, down 8.8 per cent from £46.5m the year before.
Revenue dropped to £158m, inching down 0.4 per cent compared with the prior year’s £158.7m.
Shares in the company are trading down 3.8 per cent at 2,629p at time of writing.
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Why it’s important
Pun entirely intended: Dignity’s financial fate lives and dies on the country’s death rate. Unfortunately for the FTSE 250 firm, the number of deaths dropped to 302,000 in the first half of the year, down 4.7 per cent compared with 317,000 the year before.
What Dignity said
In a short but sweet statement, Mike McCollum, chief executive of Dignity, said: “The group has performed well in the first half of 2016 and traded slightly ahead of our expectations. The group’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged.”
In short
Good news to most people isn’t necessarily good news to everybody (financially at least!).