Profits From Death Services Provider Dignity PLC Rise Again

It's seemingly been a good start to 2013 for funeral services provider Dignity (LSE: DTY), which saw an 11% increase in revenue to just shy of £68m. This in turn led to a 16% rise in operating profit to £25m.

This reason for this recent surge is being attributed to the number of deaths being approximately 7% higher than the same period in 2012. It is, however, anticipated that the number of deaths will normalise over the course of the year.

In terms of company growth, the last quarter also saw Dignity complete the acquisition of Yew Holdings Ltd, which will add a further 40 funeral locations and two crematoria to its roster. Aside from this, the group also added one further funeral location and seven satellite locations.

CEO Mike McCollum commented:

"This is a good performance by the Group with the first quarter being ahead of our expectations. The integration of Yew Holdings is progressing well and the initial performance is encouraging. All three divisions of the business are performing strongly.

Our outlook remains positive and our full year expectations are unchanged."

If stocks like Dignity that show good growth potential interest you, then I urge you to download our exclusive FREE report, "The Motley Fool's Top Growth Share For 2013". Contained within is one company that the Motley Fool's superstar analyst team have identified as a must-have for any solid growth portfolio. Click here to download it now