ABC video and article on Ashton [video]

by | Media

 

ABC article transcript

Have you ever wondered how coffins are built? Or how many are required every year to cater for the number of deaths across Australia?

Ashton Manufacturing on the Gold Coast is Australia’s second-largest manufacturer of coffins.

It produces almost 40,000 coffins every year, which are shipped out to funeral homes across the country.

According to chief executive Rohan Kerr, there is a lot of work that goes into building a coffin.

The raw timber and medium-density fibreboard (MDF) are prepared, sanded and cut to size, then glued and assembled.

They then go through a painting and varnishing process.

Once the coffin is polished, the interior lining is added, and the handles and hinges are attached. The coffins are then quality checked and shipped out to funeral homes.

The coffins range from over-sized through large, medium and small, to child-sized.

“It’s very confronting when you see the child’s ones,” Mr Kerr said.

“You think, ‘That’s a young person that hasn’t had a life’, whereas when you see an older person’s, you know that they’ve got many years of stories to tell and they’ve had a life. It does make me stop and think about it each time.”

While Mr Kerr is in the business of making coffins, he has his own personal experience of the product they make and the ramifications of working in an industry laden with emotion.

“I lost my own son in 2003. Going back through that process of when I first came here, to say wow, that’s the casket that my son was in … so it is confronting.”

According to Mr Kerr, there are about 140,000 deaths per year in Australia, and the death rate changes seasonally.

More deaths occur in winter, while summer is a quieter time for the coffin-building and funeral industries.

“We try and do the best we can to deliver a comforting process for the family,” Mr Kerr said.

“We’re constantly coming up with ideas; how do we make it different, how do we make it more stylish, more contemporary and bring it into the age of what we’re living now, instead of the dark ages.”

Article by Jeff Licence, ABC Open Producer

Post social media content at these times for maximum impact [infographic]

Post social media content at these times for maximum impact [infographic]

by | Media

Posting interesting, shareable social media content is one of the best ways to promote your funeral home business. However, it isn’t always enough to just post content at any time of day, as your content may be lost in the never ending stream of social media pages. Research reveals that posting content at certain times of day helps to ensure that your content is seen or shared ahead of people posting at different times of day.

The people over at Hubspot have put together the infographic below which pulls together all of their findings on the optimum times to post to various social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

 

Infographic - social media

Use this data as a general guideline to help you find the optimal posting times for your business.

Where’s your delivery?

Where’s your delivery?

by | Media

The delivery service that we provide for our clients is one of our key drivers and something that we are always looking to improve. Recently we have invested in state-of-the-art GPS fleet management technology to improve our casket and coffin delivery services.

Our delivery vehicles have been fitted with specialised GPS systems – similar to those used in passenger cars – which sends data about our vehicles in real-time back to our analysis software. The data we receive includes the vehicle’s location, the vehicle’s driver, what speed the vehicle is travelling, the estimated arrival time at the next location and a range of other useful information. The data is collated by our software and gives us detailed reports which can be highly beneficial for our dispatch team and our clients.

The main benefits for us are in efficiencies in route planning and fuel savings, as well as being able to know the location of our delivery vehicles at all times. Plus, we can ensure that our drivers stay within safe driving times to assist with fatigue management.

The great benefit of our fleet management system for our clients is that we can login to our system on any desktop computer or smartphone and give a real-time location of our clients’ delivery vehicle and an accurate time of delivery. We can also send the driver updated messages about any changes to their delivery schedule for the day.

Online scams costing Australians millions [infographic]

Online scams costing Australians millions [infographic]

by | Media

 

  • Total scam losses in Australia exceeded $229 million in 2015
  • 105,200 scam complaints made to ACCC in 2015
  • 15 per cent increase in complaints from previous year

 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s report Targeting Scams, reveals that $85 million was reported as lost to the ACCC’s Scamwatch program last year, with 105,200 scam complaints being made. In 2014 the ACCC received 91,600 scam complaints, with around $82 million being reported as lost.

“This Fraud Week, the ACCC is urging the community to ‘wise up to scams’ following a $3 million increase in scam losses reported to the ACCC and a 15 per cent increase in complaints. In particular, we are encouraging older Australians to wise up and watch out for scams that target them so they don’t have their hard earned savings stolen,” said ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard.

For the first time, the ACCC has also studied statistics from other authorities that receive scam reports to get a clearer picture of the significance of the losses caused by scam action in Australia. After removing those scams reported to the ACCC, reports to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) revealed losses of over $127 million in 2015 from 25,600 complaints.

Various scam disruption programs also detect Australians sending funds to high risk jurisdictions and a combined estimate of losses to this unreported scam activity is $17.1 million.

“If you add Scamwatch and ACORN data with losses detected through scam disruption work, total scam losses exceeded $229 million last year. We know that in reality the actual total is higher still as many people never report that they’ve been scammed,” Ms Rickard said.

“The ACCC’s report reveals that investment scams and dating and romance scams resulted in the largest financial losses. There are many other scams which affect older members of the community but these two scams account for half of the money reported lost by over 55’s in 2015.”

In 2015, Scamwatch reports for fraudulent investment schemes across all age groups doubled to over $24 million, with 1,262 complaints. If you add in the investment scams reported to ACORN the total amount reported comes to over $41 million. Of those reported to Scamwatch, almost $6.3 million was lost to victims over 55, with 213 complaints from this age group.

These scams pose a significant risk for Australians looking for investment opportunities, especially those looking to grow their retirement funds.

“Investment scams come in many guises including business ventures, superannuation schemes, managed funds and the sale or purchase of shares or property. Scammers dress up ‘opportunities’ with professional looking brochures and websites to mask their fraudulent operations and trick unsuspecting Australians. Before parting with your money, do your own research on the investment company and check they have a Australian Financial Services Licence on ASIC’s MoneySmart website. Don’t let anyone pressure you into making decisions about your money or investments,” Ms Rickard said.

 

Scamwatch is run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). It provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams. For more information about scams or to report a scam visit their website www.scamwatch.gov.au.

 

Infographic on scams in Australia

 

Ashton opens in Western Australia

Ashton opens in Western Australia

by | Media

We are delighted to announce to the funeral professionals of Western Australia that we have opened in the state. The new venture was announced by CEO, Rohan Kerr, at the NFDA conference in Perth this week.

Our new warehouse in Wangara will be stocking a selected range of Ashton designed caskets and coffins, our Batesville Casket Company caskets from the US, our patented Expression Coffins, and our latest contemporary Return to Sender range of coffins from New Zealand.

Our Western Australian operation will be run by our new Business Development Manager Andrew Hunt. Andrew has been in the funeral industry for almost a decade, as a supplier to the industry, and is familiar with many of the state’s funeral businesses and knows the WA market well. Andrew will be scheduling meetings with funeral homes over the coming weeks to outline our commitment to the state and to demonstrate our extensive product and service offerings.

For enquiries about supply of caskets and coffins, please contact Andrew Hunt on 0477 766 050 or email andrew@ashtonmanufacturing.com.au.

 

Andrew Hunt

Andrew Hunt, Ashton’s Business Development Manager (WA)