Davidson Marble and Granite enhances revenue with casket sales

CANTON - In 1937, when automobiles were rare and most business was conducted on Main Street every Saturday, Cullen Davidson made the weekly trek from rural Sebastapol to small towns in Mississippi, hauling monuments on a long trailer. Several days before, he'd post a notice on a town bulletin board

"My grandfather grew successful and opened a few stores, but died young, around age 50," said J.C. "Johnny" Davidson III, vice president of Davidson Marble and Granite Works in Canton. "Grandmother Hesta couldn't run them all, so she sold a few locations but retained Davidson Marble and Granite Works and eventually sold them to my dad."

The business had established a solid reputation for being the go-to place for engraved cemetery monuments, granite signs and benches and custom-made granite countertops when the family began eyeing new federal legislation in 1994 that opened the door for businesses other than funeral homes to sell caskets.

In 1999, Mississippi law changed to reflect federal legislation, allowing any business to sell caskets pre-need and after the death, and directed funeral homes not to charge a handling fee or increase service fees to offset the loss.

That November, Davidson Marble and Granite opened Affordable Quality Caskets, a branch of Davidson Marble and Granite Works, to sell caskets direct to the public just above wholesale price.

"We started selling caskets because funeral homes started selling monuments," explained Davidson. "As we figured, funeral homes don't want to deal with us much. One funeral home asked us to stop selling caskets if they could sell monuments for us. We declined."

In 1999, the company waged an advertising campaign - television, radio and print - that boosted awareness of its new business, and subsequently sales. Now, marketing is primarily done by referral.

"Most of our sales go like this: Mr. Smith dies and Mrs. Smith comes in three months later to buy a monument for him," he said. "Usually, she doesn't even know we sell caskets. When she sees our showroom, she usually finds the casket she just bought her husband and realizes she could have saved a lot of money. At that point, she usually prearranges her own casket and we discount her monument. When Mrs. Smith dies, her family calls for the casket and picks out or completes her monument."

Davidson Marble and Granite's showroom is located on the 1-55 frontage road in Canton (365 Soldier Colony Road), next to the Nissan automotive plant ("the exit ramp for Nissan runs through our back yard," said Davidson), and features casket and monument samples.

The most popular single monument sells for $535; double monuments typically range from $1,000 to $1,400.

"Usually if people get divorced, they don't change the monument," he said. "However, we've had this situation come up a number of times: A man whose wife died buys a double monument for both of them. Ten years later, he remarries and wants to convert the double to a triple monument so he can be buried between his two wives."

Even though he declined to disclose sales figures, and would only say that caskets are sold "several hundred dollars" below funeral home prices, Davidson said casket sales have increased significantly every year.

"This new law is transforming the funeral business, and that's good news for consumers," he said.

Davidson joined his dad, J.C. "Skipper" Davidson Jr., in the family business five years ago, after earning a finance degree and working in the commercial lending department for Compass Bank in Alabama "for exactly 365 days." He has seen "Six Feet Under," the HBO hit series about a family of undertakers, only once, and said his family "kinda knows what each other wants" in a casket and monument "but we haven't even bought burial plots."

The Davidsons, who opened the first crematorium in the state (now closed), have not considered opening their own funeral home. Davidson doesn't foresee consolidation in the funeral industry as a result of the four-year-old law. "It will be real interesting to see what happens," he said.

The company has five employees, including C.D. Murphy, who has worked for the company 44 years, and Katie Sumrall, a 13-year veteran.