By traditional measures of success, Uber looked like a great business. From its humble beginnings in 2009 to a current valuation of almost $70 billion in early 2017, the ride-sharing app has grown to become one of the most valuable private tech firms in the world.
Uber’s growth has been meteoric, something which many companies can only dream of, and yet its recent string of scandals reveal the story of a broken and dysfunctional company culture.
Management of these companies had created a culture of winner-takes-all, profit-before-all-else, instead of a culture where they asked themselves the question, ‘Are we proud of the work that we’re doing?’.
The Chester family came to us with an idea that they wanted an Expression Coffin for their beloved Aunty that reflected her love of New Zealand. Our Lake Wanaka design was just what they were looking for.
“My Aunty Jean was from the South Island and loved the Southern lakes. She often talked to us about her childhood in New Zealand and her family holidays with her parents and siblings in the mountains. We were all shocked when we lost her and when we saw the Lake Wanaka Expression Coffin on the website we knew that this was the perfect choice for her. The funeral was a difficult day, however her coffin was absolutely beautiful and many family and friends told us that we couldn’t have chosen a better scene for our Aunty.” -Kora Chester
We chose a high-resolution image of Lake Wanaka for use on the design
The custom-wood coffin was built and prepared for wrapping
The image wrap was created and applied to the coffin
The final design featured an image that wrapped seamlessly around and over the coffin… perfection!
We were very proud and honoured to see one of our special Expression Coffin designs on the televised funeral of local hero and police officer Senior Constable Brett Forte recently.
Senior Constable Forte was posthumously presented with policing’s highest honour – the Valour Award – for removing his colleagues out of harm’s way after he had been fatally shot.
The moving public service was attended by thousands of mourners who turned out to pay their respects to the officer and his family. The video eulogy depicted images of Mr Forte at the beach and his coffin was fittingly covered in a full-length picture of a surfer riding a perfect wave.
We want to sincerely thank you, our wonderful funeral home clients throughout Victoria, that have supported us in the region and helped us to grow…and grow.
Because of your amazing support we have outgrown yet another distribution centre in the state, so we are moving to a bigger, better location for you.
The move to larger premises means that we can carry even more stock for you, especially those items that you may urgently require from time-to-time, such as:
Double, triple, quadruple oversize coffins
Child’s coffins, or
Special coloured coffins.
We will also be stocking more of our standard product lines:
Expression Coffins,
Our traditional casket/coffin range,
Return to Sender, and
Batesville caskets
Funeral homes are welcome to pick up stock from our new address, please just give us a call to arrange a time. And, if you are out our way, you are welcome to stop in for a coffee with Patrick and Pardeep anytime.
Please call our office on 1300 263 346 if you would like any more information.
We look forward to seeing you at our new location in Campbellfield soon.
Camphor laurel is a stunning evergreen tree, growing up to 30m tall. The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed. In spring the trees produce lush, bright-green foliage and masses of small white flowers.
Camphor laurel trees were introduced into Australia from Asia in 1822 and planted as a garden ornamental along eastern Australia from northern Queensland to Victoria.
In recent years the trees have been declared an invasive species and are no longer commercially grown or sold, however they continue to propagate and flourish in areas from southern Queensland to central New South Wales.
A beautiful, often honey-coloured timber, camphor laurel heartwood (the ‘dead’ central core of a tree trunk) varies broadly in colour from pale to mid brown and can often be streaked with darker brown or red.
The sapwood (the younger, outermost wood, used to transfer water from the roots to the leaves) has many colours ranging from almost white to dark browns and reds.
Camphor laurel grain is usually interlocked with a moderately fine and even texture. Its extraordinary strong dark grain against a yellow base creates distinctive furniture and especially fine looking casket and coffin designs, such as our Ashington Camphor Laurel (pictured).
If you haven’t done so already, why not add one of our camphor laurel models in to your range.
Tip: Each camphor laurel coffin or casket looks unique, as the grain varies widely. Therefore, it is advisable to always give the same camphor laurel coffin or casket to the family, that they selected in your showroom.
Camphor laurel tree, berries and leaves
Camphor laurel timber in our factory being prepared for use
A huge blunder occurred in the Austrian town of Weiz which involved two dead pensioners
A male, 90, was due to be cremated when the family asked for a last-minute viewing
When they went to see him, they saw someone else; an unrelated 86-year-old man
Their relative had been buried some days earlier by the family of the man in his coffin
The funeral home was forced to dig up the man’s body and his coffin was cleaned up and brought to the ceremony for them to finish the disastrous service.
The embarrassed firm of undertakers took responsibility for the error, saying that an employee had not taken proper notice of the toe tags.
Adreas Adlmann from Koller-Adlmann funeral directors admitted: “This was a human error that should never have happened.”
How would you handle this situation?
Public relations disasters are difficult to handle in any industry, but when they occur in the funeral industry, their outcomes can be extremely challenging to deal with.
A company’s reputation can be ruined or saved by the way it handles its crisis communications – here’s 6 tips from telegraph.co.uk on how to do it well:
Emphasise your business’s positive track record
“If you are in the midst of an unexpected crisis, it’s important to put the situation into context to help protect your long-term reputation. Consider a manufacturing plant with an exemplary safety record that has never had an accident. If one occurs, it needs to make that point to remind the public this is a one-off.
“A good example of this was a Virgin Trains crash in Cumbria in 2007. In his TV interview in response to the incident, Sir Richard Branson said: ‘I’ve been in the transportation business for nearly 25 years. We have transported half a million passengers and fortunately have never had to be in this situation before. One can only imagine what it was like for the passengers.’
“This skilfully gave the context, while also expressing empathy for the passengers.”
Leaders must be prepared to take responsibility
“Honesty and accountability should be the key components of any communications strategy, crisis or not. Time and time again people think that ‘spin’ or downright lies are the safest route, which they are most definitely not.
“Just look at last year’s Kids Company [child charity] debacle, which was woefully handled from its side, with the scandal overshadowing the exceptional work it did and hastening its demise. No one, not the chief executive or trustees, took responsibility for the claims of financial mismanagement. The company needed a credible, empathetic face that worked with the media, not against them.
“It should have issued regular statements, either at press conferences or in a written form, openly addressing the key points as they arose – confronting and responding to claims head-on. It did not, however, and instead senior management appeared to scramble in order to preserve their own reputations.”
Be prepared to talk to customers directly
“In 2009, employees at Domino’s Pizza uploaded a video to YouTube, showing them passing wind on a pizza. Instead of communicating with online users via social media immediately to reassure them that this was a one-off incident that was being dealt with, the company later admitted to delaying an online response to the incident, in the hopes of preventing more people from watching the video.
“Its [Domino’s] lack of response had the opposite effect and the video went viral, receiving about one million views.”
You can’t avoid scrutiny with a vague and impersonal response
“Sports Direct hit the headlines in 2015 following a Guardian investigation that revealed employees being paid below minimum wage and incidences of bullying by management. An immediate response by a named senior official, promising an internal investigation and immediate remedy, would have done much to repair the brand’s reputation.
“Unfortunately, an unnamed spokesperson simply said there were inaccuracies in the report, but declined to comment further. This defensive response and lack of information only served to validate the findings in the eyes of the public.”
Always have a crisis plan for social media
“In social media, preparedness is key. Much like having a PR crisis communications plan, we recommend clients develop a social media plan to mitigate any situations that may arise. Even if your social media profiles weren’t originally created for customer service purposes, it won’t prevent someone from contacting you or talking about you there.
“A proactive and transparent approach is best practice when handling a complaint. Rather than waiting for people to demand answers, be as open and honest as possible. Acknowledge that something has happened, even if you don’t have a solution or answer available yet.
“It also helps to respond first on the channel where the crisis first broke. For example, if it is evolving on Twitter, be sure to address that audience in the first instance.”
Appoint a spokesperson
“Decide who can speak on behalf of the company – and who definitely can’t. This can be complex with a bigger organisation with multiple senior team members, board members and high-profile stakeholders. But it’s the key to handling a crisis.
“If you don’t agree your spokespeople in advance, you end up with everyone from board members to junior staff speaking on behalf of the business, thinking they’re doing you a favour – and often offering divergent views.”
As of the 31st March 2025, Ashton's Head Office QLD will be changing office hours to the following: Monday - Thursday 8am - 4:30pm, Friday - 8am - 2:30pm
