Funeral home consolidator makes three acquisitions in one month

UK funeral home consolidator Funeral Partners has continued its acquisitive growth with a record-breaking three acquisitions in one month. The acquisitions take Funeral Partners, the UK’s third largest funeral services provider, to more than 230 funeral homes across the UK.

The deals saw Funeral Partners snap up Banbury funeral home Humphris Funerals, Patrick Ryan and Daughter Funeral Directors in Ealing and Greenford and the Harpins funeral home in Wakefield, Outwood and Horbury.

Fitting with Funeral Partners’ acquisition model, all three homes are long-established family businesses, with strong ties to their local communities. Collectively, the three homes have been in operation for more than 300 years.

Funeral Partners CEO Sam Kershaw commented: “We are delighted that we have welcomed three more funeral businesses to the Funeral Partners family. We now have more than 230 funeral homes across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, representing over 125 family businesses who have entrusted their reputation and heritage to Funeral Partners.”

“We know it can be a very difficult decision for a family business to decide to sell so we offer a great range of flexibility in our negotiations, as we want to ensure that our prospective funeral homes have a deal which is tailored for them.”

Post-acquisition, all three homes will continue to be operated by members of their founding families in an effort to ensure continuity of care in their communities.

Funeral Partners Acquisition and Mergers Director Steve Wilkinson said: “I am delighted that these three high quality funeral businesses with great reputations have chosen to work with Funeral Partners and I look forward to seeing them continue to develop and serve their communities.

Funeral Partners was assisted in the acquisitions of the three businesses by Freeths solicitors. Wilkinson added: “Freeths have proactively worked on these three acquisitions to identify any issues and suggest solutions to ensure a very efficient process. All three were completed in less than three months following us working together to streamline our approach.”

Founded in 2007, Funeral Partners’ acquisition model has seen it establish itself as one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing providers of funeral services. The firm’s acquisition strategy targets independent, family-owned funeral homes. In 2021, the company made 10 acquisitions, bringing 15 new branches into the group.

In its most recent accounts, for the year ending September 30 2020, Funeral Partners reported turnover of £50 million, up from £44.4 million a year earlier. The company’s adjusted EBITDA, meanwhile, increased from £9.9 million in 2019 to £12.3 million. Its overall profits for the year sharply increased to £6.8 million, compared to £1.1 million a year earlier. At the time, the group’s net assets were valued at £37.4 million.


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