CFSA Committee to Study Upgrade to Casket Sales Statistics Reporting

The Board of Directors last summer appointed a special committee of officers, board members, past presidents, and experienced members to study and review CFSA’s longstanding Casket Sales Statistics (CSS) program. The existing program gathers data on a quarterly basis from select participating member companies, in addition to capturing timely data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on actual reported deaths, and then compiles the information via a custom software program to generate various national, regional, and company-specific quarterly reports. The two reports on pages 6 and 7 of this newsletter – on estimated state deaths and estimated casketed deaths – are two examples of the program’s reporting capabilities. It is believed that CFSA is the only nonprofit organization in the death care industry generating these valuable tools for our member companies and the public at large.

The charge to the committee is twofold: (1) to evaluate the current program for relevance and accuracy, and (2) to explore expanding the survey of product types of caskets sold beyond the traditional, current eight categories: Gasketed Steel, Non-Gasketed Steel, Hardwood, Cloth-Covered, Plastic/Fiberglass, Copper/Bronze, Stainless Steel, and Children’s. The committee is exploring the extent to which CFSA members are interested in seeing more-detailed periodic reports on, for example, sales of 16-gauge, 18-gauge, 20-gauge caskets, and whether that data can be captured from more companies participating in the program.

The CSS Committee will provide an interim report to the Board of Directors in March during the 2015 Winter Seminar. The final report with recommendations will be submitted to the Board no later than the fall, when the Board meets in November at the 2015 Fall Conference & Trade Show in Indianapolis.

Here are the current members of the CFSA CSS Committee:
  • NorthStar/Batesville – Steve Gadaleta (committee chair), John Crane
  • Matthews – Steve Duffy
  • Aurora – Tony Mapes
  • Victoriaville – Alain Dumont
  • Astral – Dave Hazelett, Billy Emerick, Ingrid Ballinger
  • Artco – Pat Duckers
  • Thacker – Mike Beardsley
  • New England Casket – Lou Tobia, Jr.
  • Schuylkill Haven – Tina Houck (CFSA President)