Carriage Services Announces First Quarter 20...(w www.carriageservices.com for a link...),Health

FUNERAL OPERATIONS

First quarter Same Store Funeral Revenue decreased $2.0 million or 6.3% as the average revenue per contract increased 4.5% while the number of contracts declined 9.9%. Revenue from the Acquisition portfolio decreased $0.2 million or 3.3%. The cremation rate for the first quarter of 2009 was 41.4% compared to 40.1% for the first quarter of last year. A recent initiative implemented in the third quarter of 2008 to increase the average revenue per cremation contract, largely by converting direct cremations to cremations with services, is getting traction and helped not only our cremation average but also customer satisfaction levels with our cremation families. As a result of this initiative, which includes new training and presentation options for client families, the average revenue per cremation contract in the current quarter increased 4.6% from the first quarter of 2008. Cremations with services have risen from 34.7% of our total cremation contracts in the third quarter of 2008 to 40.4% in the first quarter of 2009.

Same Store Funeral Field EBITDA declined by $1.8 million or 12.8% compared to the first quarter of 2008, while the related Field EBITDA Margin declined from 42.7% to 39.7%, both of which represent historically strong cash profit margins. Our Acquisitions portfolio Funeral Field EBITDA declined $136,000 to $1.6 million and the related Field EBITDA Margin declined 160 basis points to 33.6%.

CEMETERY OPERATIONS

Same Store Cemetery Operations Revenue increased $1.0 million or 13.8% to $8.4 million. Preneed sales of cemetery property accounted for $0.8 million of the increase in revenue, equal to an increase of 21% over 2008, as the number of properties sold increased by 10.4%, the average price increased 1.8%, and a higher propor
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