Dignity profits rise 6%

11th Mar 2010 07:50

The constant nature of Dignity's business helped the funeral service provider post a rise in revenues and profits in the year to 25 December.Pre-tax profits climbed to £37.5m from £35.4m on revenues that rose to £184.7m from £175.8m.During the period the company acquired seven funeral locations, fewer than in recent years, and now has 546 in the whole of the UK.The company said that the funerals it held during the year represented about 11.8% of the total estimated deaths in Britain, down from 12.3% the previous year.'Despite the difficult times experienced by the UK economy in 2009, Dignity has delivered its fifth consecutive period of growth as a public company,' the company said.It added that the first quarter of 2010 is expected to be more consistent with the average of the last five years than was the case last year when there was an unusually high number of deaths in the first quarter.