To quote the phrase ‘nothing is certain in life except death and taxes’, a funeral operator like Dignity should be a reliable business. However, a turbulent few years has offered investors in the business precious little certainty.
Apparent sharp practice has been jumped on by regulators and competition in the market has affected margins.
Today’s results show that recent efforts at a turnaround at the group will require further patience from investors as it disappointingly swings to a pre-tax loss.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould said: “This does reflect a normalisation of the market in the wake of the pandemic, but it is not a great sign that it required such an extraordinary sequence of events to be profitable in the first place.
“Dignity needs to offer a greater weight of evidence that its strategy of sacrificing profit today for market share gains in the future is paying off. For now, the market seems unconvinced.”
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