InvoCare lifts profit on rise in deaths, acquisitions

Funeral home operator InvoCare has posted a 54.6pc surge in full year profit, amid a rise in deaths.

An InvoCare funeral chapel.

InvoCare - the biggest funeral home operator in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore - has posted a 54.6 per cent surge in full year profit to $41.2m, amid a spike in deaths.

Chief executive Martin Earp said the number of deaths had increased 2.9 per cent in 2019 “back toward the long-term trend” after a 3.3 per cent decline in 2018.

The company’s revenue firmed 3.5 per cent in the full year to December 31, while it renovated 106 of its funeral homes, with plans to refurbish another 74 in 2020.

Recent regional acquisitions also added $4.3m to earnings, as did InvoCare’s “protect and grow” strategy - the company’s reinvestment strategy to update its product offering, which Mr Earp outlined last August .

“The results for 2019 have proven the positive impact of our investment in the protect and grow strategy,” Mr Earp said.

“The performance of the recent regional acquisitions has exceeded our expectations which is testament to the strength of the teams within these businesses and the strong underlying demographics in these regional markets.

“We continue to receive very favourable feedback from customers to the more contemporary product offering. This is reflected in both our continuing strong customer satisfaction scores as well as improved profitability from these renovated locations as people benefit from our improved service proposition.”

InvoCare will pay a final dividend of 23.5c a share, up from 19.5c in 2018, on April 17.