2023-11-01 06:30:00
Gas, electricity, raw materials… what impacts?
“Energy” items are the main factors of inflation among all the costs that add up during funerals.
The first outbreak concerns cremation which is obviously suffering from the increase in gas.
“Last year, I predicted an increase of +35% over 2023-2024, due to inflation in the price of the cremation tax. For the moment, the increase is very significant. But it remains lower than my forecast, despite the increase in the price of gas… which has since fallen. As the contracts are signed for long periods, it is likely that the increase will be around 20%.”summarizes analyst Charles Simpson who notes, for example, a jump from 740 to 948 euros including tax on the cremation tax between 2022 and 2023 for the Var.
Large disparities between columbariums
This Parisian, creator thirteen years ago of the site Meilleures Pompes Funèbres.com, collects a multitude of funeral data in order to obtain the most competitive quotes possible online.
A long-time resident of Nice, which has become his “city of heart”, he also places emphasis on the renovations, modernizations and date of creation of crematoriums (public service delegation) which weigh in the final bill.
In the columbarium section, on the other hand, the bill is much higher in the Alpes-Maritimes with the thirty-year concession on average at 1,317 euros compared to 908 euros in Var.
“Knowing that around 50% of town halls have increased their prices in 2023. Enough to choose pure and simple dispersion…”observe M. Simpson.
“It’s already difficult to live…”
In the agencies, the increases add up between energy and raw materials… “For the prices of coffins we have had to take into account since April the increase in wood. Here we are no longer talking about an increase in percentage but in euros with 80 euros more on average on oak burial models and 40 euros for those in pine intended for cremationexplains Ludovic Othman at the head of the Oliviers Funeral Service in Carros and Saint-Laurent-du-Var.
However, it is impossible to pass on all of these increases. “It’s already difficult for families to live… So for the moment I’m cutting back on my margins, I’m granting more and more payment facilities, installments in four installments without fees, highlighting the “funeral contract”, etc., but it will have to go down again otherwise we won’t make it”warns Mr. Othman, also deputy delegate for economic development at Carros, to echo the concerns of his colleagues.
Uncertainties which have already forced him to put on hold the creation of a third agency… But not to write volume 2 of his “memories of atypical ceremonies” after Itinerary of a croque-vies published in 2021 .
Additional costs 24/7
Funeral homes whose prices regularly rise are not immune to the additional costs.
“The increase in the electricity bill is monstrous! You can imagine our bills with the refrigerated boxes and air-conditioned lounges that run 24 hours a day!”calls out a professional from the department as we increasingly approach the turn towards “ecological funerals” evaluated in their entirety as even more expensive than the “services standards”.
“Few families are ready to spend more, the burial of bodies which impacts our practices and representations linked to death is repellent, but the ecological transition of cemeteries has already begun and above all it is necessary”concludes Charles Simpson despite everything.
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