Profile: Carriage Services, Inc. (CSV)

Carriage Services, Inc. (Carriage), incorporated in December 1993, is a provider of death care services and merchandise in the United States. The Company operates two types of businesses: funeral homes and cemeteries. During the year ended December 31, 2008, the funeral homes segment accounted for approximately 75% of the Company’s total revenue, and cemeteries segment accounted for approximately 25% of its total revenue. The Company provides funeral and cemetery services and products on both an at-need (time of death) and preneed (planned prior to death) basis. As of December 31, 2008, Carriage operated 136 funeral homes in 25 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.

Funeral Home Operations

The Company’s funeral homes offer a range of services to meet a family’s funeral needs, including consultation, the removal and preparation of remains, the sale of caskets and related funeral merchandise, the use of funeral home facilities for visitation and worship, and transportation services. Most of its funeral homes have a non-denominational chapel on the premises, which permits family visitation and religious services to take place at one location.

Cemetery Operations

The Company’s cemetery products and services include interment services, the rights to interment in cemetery sites (including grave sites, mausoleum crypts and niches) and related cemetery merchandise, such as memorials and vaults. Cemetery operations generate revenues through sales of interment rights and memorials, installation fees, fees for interment and cremation services, finance charges from installment sales contracts and investment income from preneed cemetery merchandise and perpetual care trusts.