What’s in a name?
In the past, funeral businesses were family-owned operations that would serve whole communities and in some small towns, this set-up still exists. However, larger chains have been gradually buying-out family businesses often, when senior members of the family retire. These large funeral chains tend to keep in place, the name of the family that originally ran the funeral home. Every branch of ‘Dignity’, a British funeral corporation, is run under a family name and 30% of Co-operative funeral homes – notably the largest funeral corporation in the UK, trade under a family’s name. When these businesses buy ‘independent’ funeral homes, they purchase the use of the family name and consequently, their reputation and ‘good will’. ‘Many customers visit funeral homes with family names in the belief they are supporting a local, independent, business or because they would rather place their trust in a family-owned organisation rather than a large conglomerate’ – reports the The Guardia