March 2018

Page A10 MARCH 2018 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A Interior Design Contest Hospitality Award Welcoming Hospitality Area - Any Room Submit Photo(s) of spaces where guests enjoy your hospitality. We are looking for comfortable, welcoming areas. Send entries to maryanne@cressymemorial.com Deadline March 31, 2018 The winner will receive a 46” Howard Miller Gallery Clock (625-631 Avante) Retail Cost $340. 00 For more information contact Cressy Memorial @ 1-866-763-0485 The winner will be announced in the May Issue of Funeral Home & Cemetery News By MaryAnne Scheuble Designing Woman Crisis or Opportunity? No one I know happily anticipates cost increases. But cost increases happen – regularly. Some people even re- act to price adjustments as if a crisis occurred. We all know that manufacturing costs rise due to weather, shipping, raw materials and production issues. Busi- nesses are forced to accommodate those increases. Smart business people use that opportunity to educate customers that costs are going up and they explain the cost as increased value. The furniture industry has, until recently, enjoyed modest annual price changes on selected items of 1-5% a year. In a stable market these are mostly due to cost- of-living increases. This year when sales and manufac- turing costs were assessed for profitability the outcome was grim. By the end of 2017 dramatic cost increases had affected every aspect of furniture manufacturing. Furniture Today, a furniture industry trade journal, reported in November 2017 that increases in the cost of raw materials of upholstered furniture have sparked as- tounding price increases. Over the past year, upholstery sources in the U.S. and Asia have watched prices climb. Changes are attributed to: • Short supply of TDI – toluene diisocyanate, a key chemical used to make foam (up 15%) • Higher demand for packaging due to e-commerce (up 15%) • Greater lumber costs (up 5-10%) • Lack of shipping storage space • Stricter enforcement of Chinese regulations • Fluctuation of exchange rates So, how are you affected by rising costs in the furniture industry? If you are planning changes to your facility, look care- fully at needs and wants. Instead of embellished, carved wood furnishings which may cost more, consider stream- lined, appropriately-styled commercial grade furniture. New generation laminate top tables are more durable than mirror-finish elegant woods and require no main- • BASF chemical plant fire and explosion in 2016 (deple- tion of chemical reserves) • Hurricane damage in U.S. (August - September 2017) Industrial Timber reported price increases of 40% to plywood and 89% to oriented strand board (OSB), which is similar to particle board, over the past two years. Synergy Home Furnishings with manufacturing plants in the U.S. and China anticipates an end-cost in- crease of 7-9% for upholstered goods. Meanwhile, Nice Link, a supplier of woven, knit and polyurethane tex- tiles is trying to manage their 10% increase in steel and mechanisms (think Lazy Boy), plus a 10-15% increase in the production cost of fabrics. Case goods or bedroom/ dining room manufacturers are loathe to raise prices de- spite raw lumber and packaging increases. They are most sensitive to public perception. Meanwhile, Hekman Fur- niture anticipates a 3-5% overall increase. Solutions to contain costs include: • Employee reductions which may indicate longer pro- duction/delivery time • Re-thinking of materials such as replacing foam with latex www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. B logs MaryAnne Scheuble is the Hekman Furniture Specialist to the me- morial industry. Her design career began at Ethan Allen as an Interior Decorator in Pittsburgh, PA. She joined Cressy Memorial Group in 2004 where she has handled a variety of marketing and sales responsibilities. Since 2014 MaryAnne has been travelling the country to bring beauty, beautiful room designs and exceptional furnishings to memorial industry businesses. Ever mindful that “the packaging sells the product,” MaryAnne delights in working with funeral directors and cemetery owners to create welcoming, useful, custom furniture room designs with com- mercial grade products. Contact MaryAnne by email at MaryAnne@ cressymemorial.com or call 866-763-0485. • Re-designing furniture with less-expensive components • Obtaining the best shipping and raw products cost quotes • Investing in innovation centers (a.k.a. think tanks/ research) tenance. Appeal to Next Gen visitors. Replace lower or once-reupholstered chairs and sofas with seating styled for today’s taller customers. You already provide the best service and the most attractive funeral planning options. Why wouldn’t you offer the most inviting facility? Just as furniture manufacturers are struggling to grow their businesses while containing costs, you have the same chal- lenge. You want to buy at the best price so to offer the best value. Understanding the costs and being able to explain val- ue is a HUGE part of your business. So, maybe every crisis is an opportunity. It is definitely an opportunity to learn more and an opportunity to change for the better. Hint: Look for furniture retailers to adjust prices around April 1st. So if you’re looking to buy, now is the time to save! NOTE: Show us your best hospitality space. Read about the Interior Design Contest for Best Hospitality Area above. Will you be the winner? Raw material Sofa under construction Hand-work on upholstery Finished product StoneMor Partners L.P. Reports Financial Results for 2017 Third Quarter TREVOSE,PA— StoneMor Partners L.P. (NYSE: STON) announced it has reported financial results for the third quarter 2017. Paul Grady , StoneMor’s President and Chief Exec- utive Officer commented, “We are pleased that we are now current with SEC fil- ings after spending 2017 focused on efforts to com- plete our accounting re- view, make the related re- statement, and bring our filings current. We appre- ciate the patience demon- strated by our unitholders as we worked through this process. While there is still work to do across the orga- nization and with the sales- force, encouragingly, we are seeing signs of stabilization.” Robert B. Hellman, Jr ., Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gen- eral Partner, commented, “Eliminating the distribu- tion for the second and third quarters of 2017 was, as we’ve said, a very difficult decision, but one we felt was necessary to preserve li- quidity for the longer term health and stability of the business. We are now liv- ing within the four corners of the balance sheet, mean- ing all working capital, cap- ital expenditures, and ac- quisitions must come out of operating cash flow. We came into 2017 with lever- age a little higher and tight- er than we’d like, and as the year progressed, we en- countered significant non- recurring costs. The result was that our leverage was increasing modestly as the year progressed. So we took the prudent course of ac- tion.” StoneMor Partners L.P., headquartered in Trevose, is an owner and opera- tor of cemeteries and fu- neral homes in the United States, with 316 cemeteries and 97 funeral homes in 27 states and Puerto Rico.