Castlefield Stock Story - Service Corporation International

Service Corporation International, or SCI, is a long-established business which provides funeral and cemetery services. The largest provider in North America, SCI owns and operates over 1,900 funeral homes and cemeteries across 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. It employs around 24,000 people. 

SCI makes money from organising funerals, managing cemeteries, providing monuments and gravestones as well as related products and services. The company helps the bereaved arrange funerals either on a “pre-need” basis (through funeral payment plans) or “at-need” (where the loved one has just died.) In 2024, the company arranged and conducted more than 670,000 funeral, cremation and cemeteryservices.¹ Depending on whether it’s a cremation or a burial, the average American funeral costs $7,000 to $9,000.²

Given that disposing of our dead is also an essential environmental task, sustainability is central to what SCI does, and it works hard on reducing energy and water use.

Funeral rites represent an important part of collective behaviour in all human societies and have been conducted for millennia. Such ceremonies should always be conducted respectfully and with dignity. As societal preferences and cultural norms change and technology moves on, SCI’s strategy evolves. In the past, cemeteries only offered a few standard services but these days the company recognises that families are from diverse faiths, cultures and backgrounds and so it offers a much wider array of memorialization options to accommodate various tastes and budgets. From distinctive monuments, bronze memorials and specially designed benches to family estates and serene cremation gardens, the possibilities are extensive nowadays.

Given that disposing of our dead is also an essential environmental task, sustainability is central to what SCI does, and it works hard on reducing energy and water use. The company publishes a Sustainability Report every couple of years and it is certified by the Green Burial Council (GBC) in two states (Washington and Florida.) The Green Burial Council is the environmental certification organisation setting the standard for green burial in North America. Green, or natural burials, reduce environmental impact by using nontoxic and biodegradable materials, such as GBC-approved caskets, burial shrouds and embalming fluids.³

The company manages 35,800 acres of land,⁴ mostly green spaces in cemeteries, which provide families with a natural and peaceful environment to grieve the loss of their loved ones and, in urban areas, these cemeteries often serve as community parks.  

The company invests heavily in training and employee support initiatives and it is an active corporate citizen, fostering a culture of giving and volunteering, especially in grief support and organ donation, through its SCI Foundation. It is also a Certified Great Place to Work.⁵

Shares in SCI have performed well over the last decade. The company enjoys attractive profit margins and corporate earnings are bolstered by cash held on account in funeral plans as well as by acquisitions. SCI is what we call a “quality compounder” whose shares could potentially be held for a lifetime.