Is Funeral Home Chain SCI's Growth Coming at the Expense of Mourners?
America’s biggest undertaker is buying a rival to get even bigger. But is its growth coming at the expense of grieving families?
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Steering his jet-black Cadillac CTS sedan along the streets of West Palm Beach, Fla., Brad Zahn offers a tour of the area’s cemeteries, one more tropically lush than the next. Zahn, owner of the Tillman Funeral Home & Crematory, embalms and buries people for a living. He employs his wife, Maribel, and one of their adult sons. Another son attends mortuary school. “My succession plan is in place,” Zahn says. He speaks evenly and wears muted business attire. One hand on the wheel, he seems the very picture of a confident entrepreneur. His demeanor turns anxious, however, when I ask about the funeral chain Service Corporation International. “How can you not be nervous,” he responds, “when the 1,000-pound gorilla gets even bigger?”