Rise in death rate increases Dignity profit

Dignity, Britain's largest funeral services company, saw profits rise by nearly a fifth in the first half of this year after more people died than had been expected.

Pre-tax profits rose by 19.7% to £15.8m from £13.2m in the six months to July 1 last year, it said yesterday. A 1.7% rise in the death rate helped results, with 300,800 people dying over the period, compared with 295,800 a year before.

Peter Hindley, Dignity's chief executive, said the rise was a natural fluctuation in the death rate. "The results are very good, due primarily to the increase in the death rate and also our ongoing programme of acquiring small, well-established family businesses, which has boosted our revenues. Outlook remains positive for the rest of the year," he said.

Dignity is the biggest provider of funeral services in Britain, with 516 funeral homes and 22 crematoria. It bought six funeral homes and four funeral home sites in the past year and is acquiring more.

Revenues rose by 8% in the first half to £74.6m and underlying pre-tax profits of £15.8m were tempered by one-off losses of £2.1m due to debt related to the company's flotation in April last year. Sutton Coldfield-based Dignity, which carried out 36,000 funerals and 21,200 cremations over the period, is Britain's only publicly listed funeral company.