Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana—one of Orange County’s largest and oldest cemeteries—has been sold to one of the country’s biggest providers of funeral services.
Service Corporation International, a Dallas-based company that runs funeral homes, cemeteries and related services, recently completed the acquisition of Fairhaven Memorial Park and two other area funeral homes: Fairhaven Memorial Services in Mission Viejo and Family Mortuary and Funeral Home in Santa Ana.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, although recent statements from Service Corp. executives suggest that the total price paid for the Orange County properties was about $45 million.
Each of the businesses was bought from affiliates of Santa Ana-based Fairhaven Memorial Park Inc.
The sale includes the real estate associated with each business, according to a recent letter sent from Service Corp. to Fairhaven’s vendors.
The largest property changing hands is Fairhaven Memorial Park, a 73-acre cemetery near the intersection of the Garden Grove (22) Freeway and the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, along Fairhaven Avenue. The park opened in 1911.
Mausoleum
A mausoleum on the property that was built in 1916 has “many of Orange [County’s] founders interred within, including the Moulton family, the Fluor family and members of the Irvine family,” as well as many famous actors, according to Fairhaven’s website.
Another actor, Charlton Heston, is said to have done some voice recording for his movie “The Ten Commandments” from the mausoleum, “because of the God-like effect of the sound” there, Fairhaven’s website noted.
Fairhaven serves more than 1,500 families annually, according to recent company statements.
There are no plans for changes to the operation of any of the recently acquired properties, according to Service Corp., which also operates under the SCI name.
“This acquisition expands SCI’s footprint in Orange County … and strengthens SCI’s management team in the area as the existing management team will remain,” the company said in a letter announcing the deal’s completion.
SCI operates 10 other mortuaries and cemeteries in OC, including Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary in Corona del Mar, according to its website.
The company operated 1,559 funeral service locations and 466 cemeteries in North America at the end of 2014.
SCI estimates it has 16% market share in North America, making it “the largest company in the highly fragmented deathcare industry,” according to an analyst presentation earlier this month.
It generated about $1.9 billion in revenue from funeral-related services last year and an additional $1 billion in cemetery-related revenue.
Acquisitions Key
Acquisitions of funeral and cemetery properties, particularly from family-run business, are expected to play a key role in the company’s growth this year, SCI Chief Executive Tom Ryan said during a call with analysts earlier this month.
“It’s getting to a time when you think about these businesses and the generations [that] have been enhanced, we clearly are seeing less and less generational handover, I think as time goes on,” Ryan said during the call.
“So I think (for) a lot of these businesses, it’s the right time for these people to look at diversification and selling the businesses. So we have seen a pickup in” acquisition activity.
Ryan didn’t directly cite the Fairhaven purchases during the call, which followed the company’s first-quarter earnings results, but noted it had bought three funeral homes and one cemetery “on the West Coast” during that quarter.
The cost of SCI’s first-quarter purchases was $45 million, and they were funded with $30 million in cash, Chief Financial Officer Eric Tanzberger said during the same call. No other acquisitions were disclosed in the quarter besides the West Coast deals.
Ryan said those deals would add approximately $13 million in annual revenue.
SCI did not respond to Business Journal requests for additional details on the purchases.
