Grave Expectations
As the cost of funerals skyrockets, an entrepreneur from Archway has found success with his Compare The Coffin price comparison site which helps people arrange a personalised funeral service.
Steven Mitchell, 46, set up the business to challenge the huge profit margins of funeral directors which have seen the average cost of dying rise to £7,248: “I’m not looking to make millions, I just felt there was a better way of doing it”.
“The traditional British box-lid coffin is most popular,” explained Mr Mitchell. “But of the niche designs we have the most popular is probably the Ecopad [environmentally friendly packaging]. A lady who bought one of them attached wings to it and turned it into an owl”.
“There’s another woman with terminal lung cancer and a life-long passion for scuba-diving. She has already paid a deposit on a shark-themed casket with a fin protruding from the top”.
In 2011, the entrepreneur faced the heat in the BBC’s Dragon’s Den programme. But rather than coming out with an investment, he left with the image of the confused face of Theo Paphitis: “You could see his face, he couldn’t wait to get out,” said Mr Mitchell.
“He asked me how I’m going to sell more than one coffin to the same customer. I don’t think he really understood the concept.”
But the Dragon’s Den experience didn’t stop the coffin mogul from starting the business that he brought to life in the bedroom of his home off Holloway Road. Mr Mitchell launched Compare The Coffin a little over a year ago and the site currently attracts between 2,500 and 3,000 monthly visitors.
A Bakewell Burial
One woman from Coventry, Mary, designed a coffin to resemble Mr Kipling’s cherry bakewell packaging. The branding was changed to ‘Dr Hayward’ and included on the end was the “best before” date – the date Mary’s father died. It’s believed that Mary kept the coffin design a secret from relatives beforehand, so it was a complete surprise when everyone saw it at the service.
Premier Foods, which owns Mr Kipling’s produce, also sent a case of cherry bakewells to the relatives at the wake.
There’s also the pre-planning part of the process, which enables customers to “record their own funeral wishlist”. Now people can have peace of mind while they rest in peace, knowing that unwanted guests and lifelong arch enemies will remain off the guest list.
Mr Mitchell currently has around 6,000 registered “wishlists” on the website: “I don’t care what type of funeral people have – you can have a Rolls Royce with fireworks or a budget funeral – but what the website allows you to do is to get you the funeral you want at the best possible value. It’s going to happen so you might as well have a say in it. Knowledge is power.”
