How Much Does a Grave Cost and How Profitable Is the Cemetery Industry?
Rural cemeteries are public welfare cemeteries, while urban ones are commercial cemeteries.
First- and second-tier cities have already started restricting cemetery purchases.
Fucheng Co., Ltd., a listed A-share company, reported in its 2021 first-half results that Lingshan Pagoda Cemetery generated revenue of 76.1 million yuan in the first half of the year, up 145%, with net profit of 43.23 million yuan, up 312%.
The funeral sector has almost returned to pre-pandemic performance levels. Its 2020 annual report showed a gross margin of 81.01% on plot sales, management, and funeral services.
Cemeteries can be dirt cheap, but expensive ones generally cost between 200,000 and 600,000 yuan per square meter. More importantly, after completing the burial, you still need to pay about 150,000 yuan for materials and other process fees. After burial, each cemetery has a 20-year management cycle, at the end of which you must pay a management fee equal to 5% of the original purchase price. (Previously, it was hard to find who to bill; maybe not anymore.)
This is a one-time buyout with lifetime service fees business model.
Extras:
1. Guangzhou and Baoding are financial centers for underworld business, and Beizhuang in Hebei's Baoding is particularly worth visiting.
2. The gross margin for funeral supplies hovers around 22%.
3. The average cost to complete a burial is 150,000 yuan.
4. Cemetery-sweeping services average 5 million yuan, and wailing services average 3,000 yuan.
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