InvoCare Limited (InvoCare) is an Australian public company with funeral interests in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. InvoCare employs around 2,000 people globally and has a current turnover of approximately $500 million a year.
Incorporation
InvoCare Limited was created in 2001 as part of a divestment by
Service Corporation International
Service Corporation International is an American provider of funeral goods and services as well as cemetery property and services. It is headquartered in Neartown, Houston, Texas, and operates secondary corporate offices in Jefferson (New Orle ...
who sold an 80% stake of their Australian funeral division to a consortium led by
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...
. In 2003 InvoCare Limited was floated on the
Australian Securities Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...
.
Brands
InvoCare owns and operates a number of funeral service brands in the Australian and New Zealand marketplaces and operate more than 270 funeral homes and 16 cemeteries and crematoria in their network.
Australian Brands
In Australia, InvoCare own three national brands - White Lady Funerals, Simplicity Funerals and Value Cremations which make up approximately 120 locations and mobile services. In addition to these brands, InvoCare also have more than 40 regional brands including Le Pine Funerals in
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...
, Guardian Funerals in
New South Wales
)
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
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, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Purslowe & Chipper Funerals in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
and George Hartnett Metropolitan Funerals in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
.
New Zealand Brands
In New Zealand, InvoCare own approximately 35 funeral homes. Brands in New Zealand include Gee & Hickton Funeral Directors in
Upper & Lower Hutt, Elliots Funeral Services in
Bay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...
, Fountains Funerals Directors & Advisors in
South Auckland
South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...
, Lychgate Funeral Homes in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
, and Resthaven Funeral Services in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
.
Controversies
InvoCare, along with the Australian funeral industry generally, has been dogged by controversies relating to pricing and misleading customers.
In November 2014, InvoCare Limited paid a penalty of $102,000 to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for "allegedly making a false or misleading representation" for advising customers who had pre-purchased burial sites that they were contractually required to purchase memorial plaques from InvoCare, when this was not the case.
In November 2019, an investigation by CHOICE Magazine found that InvoCare was charging fees for no service and gouging hundreds of dollars from bereaved Australian families.
"The listed company, which operates the high profile brands White Lady Funerals and Simplicity Funerals, has been challenged over its practice of adding an "unnecessary" late fee of $352 by default to its bills. The invoices clearly show InvoCare funeral homes incorporating the late fee into the total figure of all invoices," consumer advocate CHOICE said. CEO Martin Earp initially defended the 'administration fee' but the funeral giant was forced into a backdown in February 2020, when it was announced that the late payment fee, billed in advance – would be removed from its customers’ invoices.
It is thought that the decision followed CHOICE's successful appeal to the ACCC that Invocare had breached consumer law.
The controversy earned InvoCare the 2020 CHOICE Shonky Award, for failing to be upfront about prices.
2020 Coronavirus
InvoCare was one of the few ASX companies whose shares held up during the market rout of March 2020. That run came to an end when the Federal Government announced funerals would be limited to 10 attendees. Shares in InvoCare fell 18% overnight, crashing to a low of $9.07 as a result of the Government’s announcement. The funeral operator advised that it was beginning to see an impact on its core business due to restrictive social gathering measures. It said the inability to provide its full range of services would impact business performance, however, the scale of the impact was difficult to quantify.
As lockdown measures recede, Invocare appears to have lost the confidence of the market. Business analyst Simply Wall Street has calculated that Invocare's ROCE (Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) or the mount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business, is 7%, down from 9.4% three years ago. The present figure is significantly lower than the current business average ROCE of 9.3%
References
{{S&P/ASX 200
Companies based in Sydney
Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange
Australian companies established in 2001
Funeral-related companies